AAPG Learn! Blog

The Quest for Self-Actualization

In a global economic recession, one might assume that we would all slip a rung or two in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of demands. Self-actualization? Who can afford it? We are too busy scrambling for food and shelter, right?

Prepare to be surprised.

This is the paradox of education. Because education and professional development are transformative, they allow you to achieve self-actualization even as you continue to dip down into the lower “rungs of anxiety” — taking care of the basic physical necessities of life.

The moment you commit yourself to education, you announce to yourself (and the world) that have, at least on some level, learned to transcend discomfort and to aspire to a better tomorrow, and you’re able to delay gratification.

In addition to learning the subject at hand, you’re practicing developing a personal vision and mission for yourself. Your actual engagement in the learning process constitutes both the action steps and at least one level self-actualization, which is, according to Maslow, the moment when you achieve true psychological freedom — the ability to influence one’s own sense of self and identity.

A photo taken on the road from Sodrazica to Ljubljana, Slovenia.