Some of us may have a very low level of aspiration and get satisfied with very low levels of need fulfillment. Some others might have higher levels given their potential is supporting their cause. Surely Satisfied with themselves and satisfied with what they have.
Are they already successful ? May be not ? Or are they ? What are they searching for next ? It is not so easy to answer any of these, but what we might infer is , if the same question(s) are asked to these ‘some’ after say, 10 years, you might end up exactly in the same soup and with exactly the same set of questions and answers.
But some of us do not stop there. Only very ‘some’ of us. In motivation sciences, these people are described by the term ‘Self-Actualized’ (self-actualization) and they do not stop at being just being satisfied with some or ALL of their needs fulfilled. They are directed towards searching the meaning and purpose in life or may be to redefine sculpture their own definitions of purpose and life. They feel restless and try to achieve excellence in fields dearer to them. The desire for self-fulfillment, and living a meaningful life is reflected in this ‘need’. The specific form of this need, though, varies from person to person.
One person having a desire to become an ideal mother, another having a desire to become an ideal teacher and so on. Many times, this ‘need’ for self-actualization is not a search for creativity. 
They lack overriding guilt, crippling shame and anxiety, spontaneity in behavior, they are problem centered rather than ego centered and have a mission and purpose in life. They like solitude and privacy and at the same time retain their dignity even in undignified surroundings and situations. They like autonomy and freedom to pursue their endeavors in life and work. They derive ecstasy, inspiration and strength from the basic experiences of life. They have mystic experience and have a deep feeling of identification, sympathy and affection for mankind. They maintain interpersonal relations with few people, they are democratic and they can differentiate between ends and means and right and wrong. They have a sense of humor ! And they possess originality and optionally creativeness.
These are the hallmarks of those who are confident, in control of their lives and self-actualized. They ‘know’ and ‘feel’ and control what they are doing and what they will be going to do. Are you like that. May be yes, may be partially. So, We now have a benchmark to cross check and improve upon. Whatever, for me, These ‘some’ work, they try and try and they are ambitious even though in an unusual sense. They are motivated. You might not need role models to look for. You need not wait for a hero to help you out. Derive inspiration and motivation from your own basic experiences of life !
Then comes the dilemma. The ‘fundas’ above are fine, but they just don’t work. I can only say one thing for this. Each one of us must find our own answer !
So, once your are able to reach your self-control stage, Are you successful ?
The very significance of raising this question again is not to confuse but to drive straight one point : After you reach your own self-actualized world of satisfaction, you won’t have any questions !! There is no doubt of success that is to be clarified , there is no force or motivation required. So, for someone who is searching now, he does have questions about his satisfaction and success.
But, if the same question(s) are asked to these ‘some’ after say, 10 years, you would get only one thing in return : Smile !
Reach to a position where success is insignificant. But your search for satisfaction can still continue.
At the end of it all, we are just a picture on the wall !!!
Around 60 years ago, there was a popular publishing with the name Motivation and Personality by Abraham Maslow (some of you might have heard about his Need Hierarchy). The ideas above show resemblance to what’s discussed in that publication.
(This post is written using Windows Live Writer, a very good offline blog posting tool. I can safely recommend to give it a try ! )
Always searching,
WorthvieW
i’m just hypothesising.. but the way to keep success out of the equation is to think we already have success, which is having good confidence in us and in our current state… and not thinking achieving sth only would give us success and satisfaction.. the other way is dont think of success altogether, i mean like wat krishna says in bhagawathgeetha.. “karmane waadhi ka raste, maa phaleshu kadachina” .. we just love wat we do, not look for success.. but yeah i know these are pretty easy to say in theory, to achieve them in practice is altogether a more difficult thing… but yeah, i just put my point fwd..
nice article but……….The Myths of Maslow’s Law
It is a fact that there is no scientific evidence of the Maslow’s Law of hierarchy. If this theory is true than no human being can ever reach to their final fulfillment of their needs i.e. “Self-Actualization Needs” as one can never satisfy the first four lower needs ever in his life. In fact, most people fail to satisfy even their first need itself as their desire for food, drink; housing and sex can are not satiable even if they become the richest and also the most powerful person of the world. The security needs are such that no individual can ever satisfy it as protection, law and order and safety often depends on the attitude of other members of the society and there is no known State or Nation which has ever been able to satisfy the security need of its citizen.
It is a also a fact that the people, who had been hailed as genius or creative as they reached the stage of self-actualization, did not satisfy their love and belonging needs or the self-esteem needs before the desire of self-actualized was born in their minds. As a matter of fact, all self-actualized people never had even one of their needs satisfied when they actually started working to satisfy their self-actualization need.
Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of the modern time, was just 25 years when he wrote four papers in 1905, which were all so brilliant that the scientists believe that each one could have fetched him a Nobel Prize. He was then working as a grade III clerk in Swiss Patent Office. His was staying in a one room apartment and his salary was so meager that he could barely survive. His love life was in shambles and his relationship with his wife Mileva Maric was never smooth. Yet he wrote four of his greatest paper in these “difficult” times which included the paper of relativity that made him world famous and the paper of photoelectric effect which fetched the Nobel Prize.
Einstein was not an exception but it has been almost a rule in the world that only those people attained the state of self-actualization who made this as their first need and not the last. The discovery of the inner self, which leads to self-actualization, must not be the last step but the first step for the man. Those who tried to attain this stage after satisfying all previous lower needs, in fact never reached to this state at all.
His contemporary, M K Gandhi, too started his first movement of nonviolence and civil disobedience when he was barely 24 years old. At that time, he had no regular income but he had to take care of his wife and four children.
Mr Amitabh Bachhan, who is hailed as the greatest film stars of Hindi Cinema gave up the job as freight broker for the shipping firm, “Bird and Co.” to pursue a career in acting when he was barely 25 years old and he had nothing. Had he thought of taking up his acting career after, he had satisfied all his lower needs, he would have never been known to the world as a great actor.
Paulo Cohelho started his writing career at an early age and wrote his classic “The Alchemist” when he was unknown and poor. The same magic could not be created once he became world famous.
As a matter of fact, all great leaders, philosophers, poets, musicians artists never tried to satisfy their basic needs before staring their journey on their path of self-actualization. Whether, it is the leaders like Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Gandhi or the artists, philosophers and poets like Ghalib, Kabir, Tulsidas, S D Burman, Lata Mangeshkar or entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani ; they all discarded the traditional path of the fulfillment of lower needs in the beginning of their life and followed the path shown by their heart in the pursuit of self-actualization.
As a matter of fact, the converse of Maslow’s law seems to be true in real life. All great leaders and artists are known to fall after they have acquired wealth, power, love and respect from the society. Great leaders like Mao, Stalin and Fidel Castro are well known to have become slave of their senses after all their needs got satisfied. Albert Einstein could never write the quality of paper later in his life after he got everything in his life, though he lived over 75 years and wrote more than 300 papers after 1905.
Start with Self-Actualization
It is to be understood that the happiness of the man comes only when he does the things which he loves. However, few people have the time and the courage to look within them and discover their true “self”. They prefer to walk on the safe paths that are followed by most other people. They spend their life satisfying their physical and emotional needs and never get time to attain self-actualization as the lower needs are never satisfied. The right approach, therefore, is to identify the self when the mind of the person is pure and his vision is not blurred from the mud of the worldly pursuits. Those who follow the myth of Maslow’s Hierarchy need remains frustrated throughout their lives since all their needs remains unsatisfied. As self-actualization is the final goal of the life of every person, it is better to start working on it at the earliest.
Hi,
good to see your POV. I am also on the same view that success should be kept out of the equation.
But how do we in reality put away satisfaction ? Does that work ? Theoretically it is perfect to have it out, but is this ‘funda’ possible ?
yeah… pretty right, n well said.
I hve a few thughts to add, i mean, yeah success n satisfaction matters.. but i felt frm my experience. defining or searching for success or satisfaction means you dont have them and you will never have them unless you dont stop to think about them. You just keep on doing things, you keep living, you start to live.. you are in a pensive mood if thoughts of success and satisfaction keep on striking your mind..
A dialogue from a movie.. icing on d cake..
A: Where are you?
B: Here.
A: What time is it?
B: Now.
A: What are you?
B: This moment.