Hierarchy of Needs

Today’s quote is from a hero of mine: Abraham Maslow.

“We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings."

Maslow was the oldest son of poor Russian Jewish immigrants born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He went on to create the Hierarchy of Human Needs in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation, which is illustrated above. Through his groundbreaking work, he also founded an entirely new branch of psychology known as Humanistic.

I’m fascinated by Maslow’s theory because as I go through life and raise a new generation, I find myself moving rather freely from level to level.

As a single woman before children, I managed to reach self-actualization albeit for a brief time. Then I had kids. As I cared for a newborn, I found myself reviewing anew our needs, beginning with the basics before climbing back up the pyramid. Shocked, perhaps mockingly so, that we had managed to keep our son alive through his first year, I managed to climb as far up the pyramid as esteem and happily on my way toward self-actualization again while attending grad school. Unfortunately, that was not to happen. Divorce intervened and once again I needed to slide down the pyramid to reevaluate my life and rebuild a new one, beginning with physiological at the bottom and then safety for myself and my child.

Now at middle age, I still struggle from time to time to maintain my footing in some of these basic levels. Though slippery as that slope may be at times, simply because of the sheer number of years I have accrued, I’m pretty well entrenched in esteem.

The question that remains for today is how do I bring what I have managed to accomplish into the higher realm of self-actualization?

Good Morning

Today is a special day. It's special because I have finally woken up and decided to renew my commitment to routine. In hommage to my friends who do Project 365 on Twitter, where they commit to post a photograph a day, I am making my commitment to writing again. I may not post everyday. Real life does on occasion intervene, but I will be creating something new all the time and post as often as I can.

This year, 2010, came in like gangbusters. I had no time to think only to react. Both of my kids have birthdays in January plus my client has an annual sales meeting, which takes me out of town. When I came up for air from that whirlwind, suddenly business exploded and I had to put my nose to the grindstone again. Finally now, in late February, I am shaking off the dust and re-focusing. I can't wait to see where this is going to take me.

I do have a hint. Intiutive as I am, I follow my horoscope pretty closely. Today it said "Give yourself a bit of space to clear your mind. This will allow the right decision to come to you naturally from the depths of your imagination." This, I will not only allow, but wholeheartedly believe.

I do know for a change I am going to think healthy instead of weight conscious and my biggest challenge, sober instead of buzzed. May not be as much fun, but at least I'll remember more the next day.

It's nice to be back.

"The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry souffle. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it." -- Julia Child

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise." F. Scott Fitzgerald

"In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done is quite
apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it."

-- Elbert Hubbard