Getting What You Want In Life, Motivate With Maslow

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Category : getting what you want in life, maslow, maslow theory, motivation, success

In the year 1943 Dr.Abraham Maslow a prominent psychologist of the time, published his influential article “A Theory of Human Motivation” in the prestigious journal, Psychological Review. In his piece Maslow outlined his framework of human motivation which he developed after conducting extensive studies through use of clinical experiments. The core philosophy behind Maslow’s theory of motivation was that people are motivated by a drive to fulfill needs that are unsatisfied. There is a hierarchy of needs and a person cannot move up a rank in the hierarchy until a lower need is first satisfied.

So long as a person has a craving to satisfy the needs in his current level on the hierarchy he will be able to proceed to the next level as soon as those current needs are met. Conflict occurs when a person tries to jump the hierarchy before first satisfying the needs of his current level, and this is the root cause of depression and unhappiness. Most people get caught up in the love/belonging stage and that is why they cannot move up the pyramid. Having a positive relationship with your friends and family will give your self-esteem the boost it needs.

Let us take a closer look at this hierarchy. At the pinnacle is what he termed as “self actualization” and very few people in this world actually reach this level. Self actualization is only obtained when a person fulfills their potential in this world, and this can be achieved when a person has certain key motivational factors:

Truth

Justice

Wisdom

Meaning

People who are on the path to self actualization have a number of experiences which Maslow termed “Peak Experiences”, i.e. moments where they experience profound happiness and harmony. So the next time you find your self to be upset about life and find that you are lacking motivation, perform some introspection and find out what are your strengths. Then use your strengths to satisfy the needs of your current level so that you can move ahead in life.

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