Maslow's Theory Of Self Actualization And Giving Up On Dreams

1099 words - 4 pages

As we can see, in the daily life we are living in, people always give up on their dreams very easily. It is usual for us to hear someone say that, "I quit. I can not do this any more." Some people do so because they are tired of what they are doing, and others may just give up on their dreams because of their own personality problem. In my point of view, it is not a good or healthy thing to do because in the end, people may regret for what they decided to do. They may feel unhappy or even depressed. This can increase the number of people who have melancholia, and it also increase the rate of suicidal behavior. So, in my point of view, dreams, the life goals of individual's, should never be given up.
This is not a new born problem that people sometimes abandon their dreams. It happens throughout human history. A famous psychologist Abraham Maslow has a theory (Fig. 1) which is widely accepted by people. That is we are having different levels of needs. Some of them are basic, and some are at a higher level. Our behavior of chasing the dreams can be understood as fulfilling the "Self-Actualization Needs". Once we feel that chasing this particular dream cannot satisfy the needs, we give up, and look for other things to fight for. He believes that this happens all the time because it is more influenced by the individual himself or herself than the external environment. Besides, Carl Rogers, who is also a famous psychologist, had theorized that we have a "real self" and an "ideal self". In his theory, our dreams should be defined as our "ideal self". If there is a major difference between those two, we feel insecure, depressed and generally unhappy. This also happens when the "real self" cannot meet the "ideal self," and this is the time when people usually give up their dreams.
Fig. 1 Maslow's Theory A Hierarchy of Needs

In nowadays society, people stop fighting for their life goals for more varieties of reasons. Some people do so because of the bad economy. It seems that they have to give up on their dreams to look for a better way to earn money. There are also some people who are just tired of their current living style, and want to have a new way of living. I think this can be understood as the individual's own personality problem. According to Professor Lebreton, "People have different personality traits within them that makes up their personality. Some personalities are more passionate than others, while others are more likely to lose the passion and start to do other things." This is the reason why that there are always some people who would give up on their dreams very easily.
Sometimes, it looks like that there is no big deal for people to give up on their dream. This is actually wrong because abandoning the primary dreams can lead people to go on totally different life tracks. Usually, if the individual cannot get used to his or her "new life" soon enough, it is likely for him or her to feel even...

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