Lets talk about potential
Do you push yourself to achieve against the odds? Or self-limit? What are your beliefs about your personal limits? And other thoughts...
In the 1940s the American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed something subsequently known as the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. It attempts to rationalise human motivation ie what makes us want to do one thing or aim, or challenge ourselves, to achieve another.
Embedded in it is the idea that we’re hard-wired to want to evolve.
Summarising it as simply as possible, at its base is what Maslow termed our Physiological needs — in other words our most functional requirements as human beings ie the ability to breathe, wee, poop, sleep, be warm, not be naked etc. Once these most basic needs have been fulfilled, we are able to progress to the next level.
Thus, above physiological needs is The Requirement to Feel Safe (physically, emotionally and financially, which is key). Then comes a need for Love and Social Belonging, pretty self-explanatory. After that Esteem, our drive for respect and/or self-respect.
But then it gets really interesting…
However, before we go onto the final four layers, obviously there are many nuances that could be explored here, and I’m deliberately simplifying a complex idea otherwise this could be a very long post! For example, consider the child that sacrifices his sense of safety in pursuit of love by clinging to an abusive parent? I think too that things muddy around the theme of esteem: some seek externally-bestowed fame and adoration, others can be content with the respect of a beloved partner. Is one more valid/worthy than the other?
But this is not what interests me here. I’m trying to understand the grey area between setting ourselves limits, accepting our limits and self-limiting behaviours. What, in truth, differentiates one from the other?