self-actualize

I’ve had a huge task before me, and didn’t quite get everything done, but it all worked out. I had to reinvent the wheel for this goal several times. I tried to listen to external encouragement, but it really didn’t help me. I tried to have faith in my religious beliefs to sustain me throughout the process. It still wasn’t helping me much. I tried almost everything I knew to do, and the only thing that really began to work was my optimism. I didn’t know how things would work out, but that was the only thing that initially gave me comfort. From there, I knew I really needed motivation, and sent out a few e-mails to my closest friends and family to pray for me. I began to pray myself more deeply for success and have frequent meditation/devotional time to focus on God’s strength rather than my own. I then began to use every resource I had to create a harmonious organized atmosphere to keep up with everything that needed to be done. I took breaks as needed to maintain focus. I also allowed myself exceptions to things I normally deny myself. It turns out that they helped on some occasions, while others they didn’t. For the last week and a half, I worked with fierce determination to get things done and truly put as much of myself as I was able to into my work. My mantra throughout this was “Work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord.” I took that seriously, and it was the final motivation I needed. I hope that should I come up against great stress again will be able to come up with more and more ways of dealing with it, but this goal was constantly in mind throughout last week.

that I am satisfied with. I added this goal at Timothy’s urging at first, after some careful thought and consideration. I thought it would be a “fun goal” and it wasfun. But, it became rewarding as well! I never expected the insights of others that have commented along the path of this goal. I also never expected the response I’ve gotten from this goal, either. While this goal will never be perfectly achieved, I believe I am at a point where I am enlightened as to who I am, what I want to become, and some processes as to how to bring that desire to fruition. I have become aware of my weaknesses and my strengths. I know what I need to develop to get where I want to be, too. This is an everchanging, developing, dynamic goal. However, I’ve reached a level I am satisfied with being my baseline for now. I am at a point in my “self-actualization” process where I know that I want to increase my life’s quality continually, and am dedicated to doing that.

Self-discipline is one of the traits that I most desire at this point in time. I believe that it is a key element for solving problems, accomplishing tasks and in general. I have realized lately that I need more of this. So, I’m making it more of a priority to develop more of this. It’s never too late to acquire more of a good thing in life.

In attacking goals, solving problems or just day-to-day living, it is very important to be emotionally-aware. I must know my limitations and barriers as well as my strengths and talents to accomplish something. If I am not aware of these I may not be able to accomplish anything at all because I am too oblivious as to what the reality of the situation is. I’ve had to realize some things lately that I was not ready to accept, but have dealt with them marginally well. With creativity and determination I know I’ll be able to improve my self-defeating weaknesses that I have allowed to be a part of myself at times. Attitude is everything, so be aware of how it influences you.

I have always thought of myself as an open-minded person. And, on the surface, I’m sure I do appear to be. I have recently realized that I need work on this area with respect to certain areas of life. This has been pointed out to me in a few ways lately. (No one’s told me this directly, I’ve just drawn some conclusions about this after some reflection on things.)

I think that this quality helps me be able to gain more knowledge before I make a decision, and therefore I make more informed decisions. So, I think that this is an important aspect of my self-actualization process.

I am not the world’s greatest problem-solver, so at times this gets a little tricky. But, the emphasis of this goal is to analyze how I do go about solving problems creatively. If I have a complex problem, sometimes creativity will suffer…but something that has helped me is breaking down the problem into sections. Each section will be more manageable than a large task. After a task is broken down, then prioritization must come into play. What are the most important tasks in this list? Incidentally a friend and I were having a discussion recently and “The Concept of Three” was mentioned. In stressful situations, most people can handle 3 tasks at one time…so choose your priority three tasks and focus on those. (I recently employed the 3 suggestion when approaching a specific problem lately, and it did decrease the amount of time I got my problem taken care of.) When doing the task, I work as hard as I can and also do it as ethically as I can. So, when I’m done with solving a problem or completing a task, I can feel proud about what I’ve done (thus eliminating another form of stress, guilt).

I’m not perfect in this by any means, but I do feel like I genuinely attempt to do the above. The point of self-actualization is not only to see what creative processes you employ, but to improve upon what you’re already doing…so this is a challenge to myself.

In dealing with day-to-day life, I attempt to be consistently optimistic. This is not always the easiest thing to do, but I believe it is part of what makes me able to function as I do. In dealing with life, one has to see the positive sides of thing. Also, it is vital to be able to see benefits in everything. If at least one single benefit cannot be identified in a task, then I’m of the opinion one should re-evaluate whether they should participate in the activity. Life is short and there is only so much time that we have to spend here…so what time we do have should be spent doing worthwhile, beneficial activites.

1. Personal defintion of self-actualization.
2. Key value of my life, the principle that lays my life foundation.
3. My enthusiasm
4. What bores me
5. What enlivens me
6. What I am good at doing
7. Where my mind goes when in wanders
8. What deadens and numbs me
9. My passions
10. Material things that matter to me most
11. Activities/Actions that matter to me most
12. 10 most important people in my life
13. Things from my past that hamper my productivity.
14. Things that I worry about the future that hamper my productivity.
15. What is important for me to have that will encourage me to have my maximum potential.
16. Things that I need to enhance and not detract from my life.

(The last 3 I haven’t addressed yet, but plan to do so soon.)

If you have any ideas, I’m open to explore them, too.

One of the things that I highly value is respect of everyone…whether they deserve it or not. This sometimes proves challenging when I am faced with situations, but I believe that this is what one person should show another. Many problems in the world may have been avoided if everyone held to this belief. One challenging situaton that I was faced with this past weekend was that I travelled with a sometimes annoying and loud person. Three days of semi-constant contact provided very challenging situations. Thankfully I remembered that respect is very important to me and I took the high ground at every turn in the road. I hope that I will continue to be able to treat everyone with this courtesy, and be able to spread this to others as a belief. I was motivated to write this after a friend’s situation reminded me this characteristic is so important to use consistently in one’s life.

What are the forces that drain me from my past that are hampering my productivity in the present?

1. Focusing on negative times in my life too much.
2. Asking too many “what if” questions.
3. “Spinning” some memories, and not being realistic in their recollection.
4. Allowing incorrect thinking to creep back into my current life.
5. Unnecessary guilt feelings.