Since the beginning of the humanity, people have been trying to meet their needs. There have been many studies which classify the needs in order to understand the issue and to explain how people meet them. One of the most important studies has been made by Maslow. Therefore, I would like to mention about “self-actualization” on the basis of his study called “Hierarchy of needs”.
Now it is time to give a concrete example to make it clear; I didn’t have any certain plan for my future when I was 14 years old, namely during the times of high school. Neither during the preparation class nor the first year I couldn’t have any career plan for the following years, but in the beginning of the second year all the students had to decide in which field they will keep on studying. In fact, this year was my turning point because I have started to know more about myself and my aim has started to become clear.
Moreover, it has taken long time to realize myself as an individual. Actually individuals need for disciplined and intensive study process on the way of achievement of self-actualization. On the other hand, they should have realistic perceptions of themselves, others and the world around them. Besides these individuals are concerned with solving problems outside of themselves, including helping others and finding solutions to the problems in the external world. Even if they come across with undesirable situations, they should try to realize their mistakes on the emergence of such situations and should take responsibility in order to overcome them instead of giving up.
In order to achieve self-actualization, I have experienced all the steps mentioned above and realized myself. While deciding on the field in which I will keep studying, I thought about in which field I’m more interested, and in which field I might be happier. In other words I had to decide which field could satisfy my expectations, and I could be extremely successful. After all, I have chosen it. Following this choice, I kept trying to achieve self-actualization. At the end, I did it by choosing the department that I desired. Finally, I have started my studies in the field of my future dream job, which is “Public Relations and Advertising”, and I was extremely happy. I suppose that if I chose the department of psychology which was suggested by the other people around me, I would not achieve self actualization and would not be living my own life.
In addition, some people set targets which cannot be achieved by them, and at the end they are frustrated with the result. Such people face with this failure, because they do not try to realize themselves, namely they don’t achieve self-actualization. For instance, self-actualized people are always aware of the things happening around them, they tend to understand the environment and always try new things. Furthermore, they usually try to see the life through the eyes of others, and they are also creative. They are also keen on understanding and enjoying what the life brings them. Self-actualized people tend to view the world with a continual sense of appreciation, wonder and awe. In addition to these, they work hard in case of a need and they are aware of their responsibilities. I also took into account all the above mentioned criteria, studied hard by being aware of my responsibilities to achieve self-actualization, and I finally realized myself.
Finally, we can assume that individuals, who are on the way of self-actualization and self-knowledge, will initially discover themselves. It should be noted that this is vital, because if a person does not know about himself/herself, how come could (s)he manage to know about the accuracy of the things surrounding him/her? Do not forget the fact that the person, who is really in pursuit of the fact, is the one looking forward to realizing himself/herself.
Sedef Seyit
20080301082
