Self-actualization Discovery

Self-Actualization is defined as being the person that you're meant to be at your full potential. According to Psychologists, "the achievement of one's full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and a grasp of the real world.” In old school terms, this is being a Renaissance person.  Though I don’t know anyone who has reached full potential (because there always room for growth) the journey to try and reach full potential should prove pretty interesting because the world is forever changing there’s always something new to learn and try.  Learning who you are, I believe, is meant to be a journey and a process, and for some  of us it takes longer than others.

I took the scenic route through life and encountered many bumps, potholes, U-turns, and detours. The bumps taught me to hold on so as not to lose my shit! The potholes taught me to look up because even if you fall down and skin your knee, there’s still plenty of road ahead. You get back up, keep going, and now there’s a cool story to explain the scar on your knee. The U-turns and detours taught me new skills because, well, I had to make do wherever life landed me.

There’s a school of thought that when you graduate from high-school you should have a clear direction of where you want to go in life, then you take the steps to get there.  In theory this is a good plan but it’s not the right way for everyone and I wish I had been directed to read books like

Careers: The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your Future or 'The Strangest Secret’ by Earl Nightingale that would’ve given me some more ideas outside of what I was exposed to. No one tells you that 1) if your planned route doesn’t work out that it’s ok and you’re not a failure, and 2) you have so many options. No one told me and I'm today years old realizing that had I been given some other tools, I'd be further along in life by now. But...(dramatic pause) you shouldn't have regrets. Realizing that the things that didn't work out the way you planned taught you some things, then embracing those things...priceless.

 Even though I took the scenic route, these priceless experiences gave me the knowledge that would allow me direct my own children when they graduated from high school. Though there are no regrets, admittedly I would’ve done things differently were I able to do it over. You know, that hindsight is 20/20 or better.  My detours and U-turns taught me independence while learning to navigate life on my own and maintaining my sense of spontaneity to still have fun. (Cause you know that’s super important).

In this current climate in America, I realized that if you stay stagnant and do the same things over & over to just maintain...you're not going anywhere. I just realized recently that I’ve been insane, literally doing the same things over and over again  expecting different results…for years.  I know, I know...I've been doing it wrong.  And I'm today years old taking the steps to step out of insanity and do something different, do things better, to work smarter, not harder.