Tag Archive for 'visualisation'

Self-actualisation

Published on 9 January, 2009 in Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , .

Self-actualisation was the phrase used by Maslow to denote the fulfillment of our highest human needs – an experience that we can all work towards yet very few attain. Self-actualised people are detached from the good opinions of others and have no desire for power over others; they follow their bliss and are true to themselves. Perhaps it is this pursuit that led my grandfather to spend so long nurturing his precious lawn! Here are some of the key characteristics for you to consider.

  • Realistic
  • Self-accepting
  • Spontaneous, simple and natural
  • Purpose-driven
  • Detached and objective
  • Live in the present moment with curiosity and freshness
  • Peak experience-driven
  • Shares compassion and profound love
  • Honours people for their humanity, accepting themselves and those around them
  • Focused in the moment, means and ends are inseparable
  • Enjoys humor but not at the expense of others
  • Creative and not attached to culturation
  • Resolves apparent dichotomies through appreciating the unity that lies beyond appearances

You cannot achieve enough to be happy. But you can happily achieve.

Daniel Smith

Self-actualising is really simple!

Published on 7 January, 2009 in Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , .

In Brisbane a few years ago, I met a well known psychologist who studied with Maslow. He was telling me how there are three attributes that self-actualisers share in particular:

  1. Independent of the good opinion of others
    Do you like others to like, approve and validate you, or do you need it so much that you change your behaviour on the basis of what others will think of you?
  2. Non-attachment to outcome
    It’s great to have things turn out the way that we intend them, though self-actualisers do their part regardless of their outcome. They write because they are a writer – not because others read what they write
  3. No investment in power over others
    Having people love you and support you can make life easier and more pleasurable, however self-actualisers regard influence for its own sake as pointless. Though they may enjoy sharing the journey, though would prefer ‘fellow travellers’ rather than ‘disciples’.

This sort of self-actualisation thinking sounds remarkably similar to concepts of Flow and even Now thinking.

Yesterday I was listening to a TED talk on the “Slowing down in a world built for speed”, ironically while the bus that I was travelling in was crawling along South Pudong Road, and again this seemed to fit very nicely. Let’s take the time to appreciate our world without regressing to the need to dominate others.

Daniel Smith

Talking to yourself doesn’t always make you crazy

Published on 5 January, 2009 in High Performance and Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , , , .

Intrapersonal communication skills create our quality of life. So what are your skills like?

Based on my presentation in People’s Square, Shanghai, 21 August 2007.

What you focus upon you will tend to bring into your life, whether it’s what you want or what you don’t want. It’s sometimes called The Law of Attraction, The Secret and a bunch of other names, but ultimately it’s pretty simple: Focus on what you want.

The questions that you ask yourself shift your focus and are one of the main ways that we think deliberately about anything. If you ask yourself “why does this always happen to me?” you’ll get a very different answer to “how can I make this better?” So ask yourself the questions that you really want answered.

Let go of your handbrake and go for it. None of us get an ‘certificate of attendance’ for life, so embrace the moment and accept the gift of the precious present.

Really, there are only two types of problem: Either you know what you want and don’t know how to get it, or you don’t know what you want. And a lot of the time, the first problem type is actually the second type in disguise! So what do you really want?

And remember a few attributes of geniuses…

  • It takes a decade to really get somewhere
  • You have to go beyond knowledge towards making a unique contribution
  • Postpone the need for closure and withstand conformance pressures
  • Cultivate skills, processes and the motivation
  • Focus your energy and effort
  • Be motivated by Mastery, Entertainment, Exploration and Happiness, before than external rewards

You are talented and it’s just a little jump to lift yourself up to being a ‘genius’ – and that’s somewhere that I can help…

Daniel Smith

What do you really want?

Published on 22 December, 2008 in Change, Personal Growth and Purpose. Closed Tags: , , .

May I a small house, and a large garden have.
And a few Friends, and many Books, both true,
Both wise, and both delightful too.

The Secret made it to Oprah. It’s an amazing thought that in the next 24 hours, Oprah will be helping to transform this story/ documentary of one woman’s experience with focus and manifestation into an even more powerful international success. But it leaves a very challenge part of the story unsaid: What do you really want?

Although the heart must be made to conceive before the eye will be permitted to discover, I find that one of the greatest challenges that we face is to let go of our self-imposed blindness. “What would you do if anything was possible?” is a question that I have asked at many of my seminars and workshops (as well as in personal coaching and consultation sessions), and the recurring theme in responses is that very few people really know what is possible.

Great spirits certainly do encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds, yet the greatest challenge for a great mind is to make the leap to being a great spirit. For a great spirit to be unleashed, you must believe in yourself. Whether it is a (delusional?) sense of narcissim, an inflated sense of self-importance, or perhaps just the irrational spontaneous adoption of a belief in personal purpose and direction, for someone with talent to apply that talent in the disciplined and focused manner necessary to accomplish anything great or to develop any great skills perhaps demands something of a state of mental or emotional imbalance.
So where do we begin?

That, to me, is the primary advantage that superior educational institutions afford over ‘ordinary’ ones. Great institutions, employers and places tend to attract those with talent and ability, and in doing so give the individuals the exposure to ideas and people that can expand their minds in otherwise inconceivable ways. While I believe that the truths of ‘genius’ are still somewhat waiting to be discovered by each of us, travel, education and exposure to new ideas is one of the surest ways of expanding your mind…
If you really just want the small house and large garden, are the things that you’re doing along the way really helping?

Daniel Smith

Self-actualisation Revisited

Published on 2 November, 2008 in High Performance and Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , .

I’ve had a little post-it note sitting beside my desk for a few months now, so it’s about time I actually wrote something about this! Self-actualisation comes down to three words things:

  1. Independence
  2. Non-attachment
  3. Power-ambivalence

Independence means that you think for yourself. It requires an individual to choose their own path rather than choosing the path that is given to them or the one that others would choose for them. Independence demands that an individual take responsibility for their conditioning and their thought processes, and to take responsibility for their experience of life. Sooner or later, great people have to leave the ‘tribe’ that gave them their foundations – that is the only way to start your own tribe.

Non-attachment means that while you can work towards goals and objectives, you do so while remembering that most things that seem to matter don’t. They might act – even ferociously – as if what they were doing mattered, yet when their work is done they retreat in the peace that comes from knowing that it doesn’t. Money, relationships and our reputation are powerful motivators for those who are not living at this level.

Power-ambivalence means that you do not try to control others. Self-actualised people do not live to manipulate or control others, but instead proceed along their personal path, honouring their truth as their truth, rather than trying to impose their beliefs or ideas upon others. While leaders are called upon by communities to provide guidance, self-actualised leaders do so without becoming attached to the perks, privileges or prestige attendant thereto.

Daniel Smith

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