Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Fulfillment Needs
At the top of Maslow’s hierarchy are Self-Fulfillment Needs. Originally, he designed this category as an all-encompassing need for Self-Actualization, reaching your full potential. Later, he divided it into four sub-categories: Cognitive, Aesthetic, Self-Actualization, and Transcendence.
Recently, a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while shared with me that her new job was going well; she was meeting her financial needs, which previously had been a concern, but she wasn’t feeling fulfilled. Financial needs are a basic level need; they fall under the category of Safety needs, and typically need addressing before moving up the hierarchy. This lack of movement up after meeting that basic need was what my friend was feeling. Now that she’d met this lower level need, she was noticing the higher level need for fulfillment.
In 1980, the U.S. Army premiered a new recruiting slogan, which it then used for over twenty years: “Be All That You Can Be.” Join the Army and not only will those lower level needs for basic necessities, love and belonging, be met, but the Army promises to help you achieve self-actualization. The Army moved away from this slogan in 2001, only to start using it again this year, removing the conjunction, to “Be All You Can Be.” Maslow theorized that we all have this inner drive to make the most of ourselves, to strive to become the ideal version of ourselves. The Army promises to deliver on that goal.
Ironically, even while naming self-actualization as a common need, Maslow did not believe that most people could achieve it. Instead, in his later work, he explained that it was a measure of peak experiences, the high points in your life when you feel in harmony with yourself and the world around you and that everyone experiences such moments. Examples of these experiences include the joy of watching the sunrise, falling in love, having an epiphany, or giving a wonderful performance, such as in sports or music, regardless of whether you have an audience. It’s a time when you are at peace with yourself and your surroundings and reveling in wonder at the world around you. It may be described as mystical or spiritual or pure joy. You accept the world for what it is, as it is. Maslow believed that the more self-actualized you are, the more peak experiences you have.
The previous four levels of needs are deficiency needs, meaning that it is noticeable when they are not being met. You know when you’re hungry and need food. You know when you’re living paycheck to paycheck and lacking financial stability. You know when you are lonely and need community. You notice the lack, or deficit, of what you don’t have, and the need goes away once it is met. In contrast, self-actualization needs are a growth need; they are not something you lack but something you desire for personal growth and discovery. It’s learning for the sake of learning. It’s taking up a new hobby to try something different or an activity outside your comfort zone simply to stretch yourself and learn more about yourself. You may not like the new activity! But you wouldn’t know if you’d never tried it.
Maslow believed that we are always becoming; human beings are never static. We grow and we change, in one way or another over the years. Even things that are stagnant are actually changing; they are slowly deteriorating. Self-actualization is the opposite of that deterioration. It is striving to become better, to continue to grow instead of wither. Unlike the adage, you can teach an old dog new tricks. You are always becoming. In this model, you are becoming more fulfilled as you choose to live into your potential.