Is self-actualization bullshit?

[Danioover9000]

I've been watching Leo's videos for several years and done about half the exercises. I can say that my results at first varied between progress and regress but I did grow a bit more lately.

However I came across contradictory advice and met people who seem to be self-actualizing yet offered different experiences from my own that seemed to falsify my own experiences.

I had to stop and ask myself these questions:

What if I'm wrong about self-actualization?

Am I deluding myself with a fantastical future I'm visualizing?

Why am I actualizing when most of the process might be wrong?

This is driving me insane. I'd appreciate some advice on this. Thanks.

[Knock]

Yes its bullshit, that's why we are here 

Are they criticising certain aspects of self-actualisation? Or all of it?

@Danioover9000 What does self-actualisation mean to you? What does it mean to the critics? 

[Shadowraix]

There are a thousand different ways to reach the same goal. Find your goal then pick whatever discipline helps you reach it. 

The proof is in the results. 

[ajasatya]

1 hour ago, Danioover9000 said:

Is self-actualization bullshit?

Amazing question!

The answer is... test it out

Try staying away from contents related to self-actualization and give up on contemplating deep aspects of Life for a while. Good luck!

[Elisabeth]

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Danioover9000 said:

However I came across contradictory advice and met people who seem to be self-actualizing yet offered different experiences from my own that seemed to falsify my own experiences.

Yes, you'll encounter seemingly contradictory pieces of advice which have both helped people. That's because people are not the same. 

One person might feel worthless because he's never achieved anything. He might be helped by goal setting and developing discipline. 

Another person might also feel worthless, but he's an anxious overachiever. Goal setting is his second nature, and in fact, it's the very thing that hinders him from stopping and looking inside. He might be helped by loosening up and doing less. 

Any time you hear about a technique, you have to think about its prerequisites an limitations. 

[Danioover9000]

50 minutes ago, Knock said:

Yes its bullshit, that's why we are here 

Are they criticising certain aspects of self-actualisation? Or all of it?

@Danioover9000 What does self-actualisation mean to you? What does it mean to the critics? 

   Well, the title is that way because of the strange experiences these people shared with me. They weren't criticising me: they just shared parts of their life story and their actualization journey that contradicted my own.

   Originally I thought self-actualization meant you realized yourself through taking action. I thought this applied to the people I talked to, but they disagree on some parts. Some of my friends thought the path had to do with earning lots of money and creating a business. Or being a celebrity.

A close friend in particular shared her story, briefly, that her journey started when she had to overcome a paranormal experience in her childhood that scared her. Afterward, she sought help with modern Western methods. When that stopped working, she kept searching. Utimately through spiritual means she overcame her fear. She defined what self-actualization meant to her: that you suffer first, then start a journey to free that suffering and change for the better. She hadn't shared that part of her childhood and all of the sudden her somewhat strange behaviour in the past made more sense to me.

This I think was what made me stop and contemplate my take on the path that my assumption of it was bullshit because I may have been taking action as an excuse for not being self reflective.

[Danioover9000]

Are you saying that self actualization is relative?

[Leo Gura]

What's bullshit is not self-actualizing, what everyone else is doing.

[Knock]

Just now, Danioover9000 said:

Are you saying that self actualization is relative?

Yes, 100%.
Its your self-actualisation. There is no right or wrong path. Just suggestions that worked for some, but maybe not for others.

[Shadowraix]

@Danioover9000 Ding ding ding

[Danioover9000]

3 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

What's bullshit is not self-actualizing, what everyone else is doing.

 

3 minutes ago, Knock said:

Yes, 100%.
Its your self-actualisation. There is no right or wrong path. Just suggestions that worked for some, but maybe not for others.

 

23 minutes ago, Elisabeth said:

Yes, you'll encounter seemingly contradictory pieces of advice which have both helped people. That's because people are not the same. 

One person might feel worthless because he's never achieved anything. He might be helped by goal setting and developing discipline. 

Another person might also feel worthless, but he's an anxious overachiever. Goal setting is his second nature, and in fact, it's the very thing that hinders him from stopping and looking inside. He might be helped by loosening up and doing less. 

Any time you hear about a technique, you have to think about its prerequisites an limitations. 

 

50 minutes ago, Shadowraix said:

There are a thousand different ways to reach the same goal. Find your goal then pick whatever discipline helps you reach it. 

The proof is in the results. 

How about any suggestions for accurate evaluation? For example: visualization, feedback and maybe safety strategies in case I invested wrongly in the first place?

[Truth Addict]

@Danioover9000

It definitely could be, since control and future are illusions.

We're gambling here, what better horse would you be betting on?

[ColdFacts]

This is how you evaluate your progress. First we have the reason for this whole thing, usually it's a abstract thing or desire in your mind, second we have the problem, reality which usually is nothing like the desire or reason/imagination. Now how has any of this self actualization helped you in either changing the abstract desire/imagination or the reality? That's where your answer is.

[Knock]

21 minutes ago, Danioover9000 said:

How about any suggestions for accurate evaluation? For example: visualization, feedback and maybe safety strategies in case I invested wrongly in the first place?

Obviously it is relative, so I can only say what has worked for me, which would be taking massive action and journaling. 
I wouldn't worry about safety strategies. Ironically, my biggest growth in self-actualisation has been through making massive mistakes and learning from them.
 

[Moreira]

I know that feeling. Some self-actualization/spiritual masters say that we should leave resistance, practice acceptance, that life has no purpose and we are already perfect and we dont need self-actualization... The perfect argument for lazy new age bums? A conspiracy theory to prevent masses from awakening?

In the other hand is self-actualization a business which from gurus take profit while their disciples are pursuing something unattainable and paying the guru for life?

Do nothing or do something? 

[Shadowraix]

3 hours ago, Danioover9000 said:

 

 

 

How about any suggestions for accurate evaluation? For example: visualization, feedback and maybe safety strategies in case I invested wrongly in the first place?

Stop trying to cut corners. Just go out and do it. Experiment. You learn even when you fail. Self actualization is a journey that will go on until your death. 

[JustinS]

Yes it is lol

Hard striving is necessary in the beginning though. The attempt 

After everything collapses, when it all just naturally falls away,  you just are. 

... 

 

[Harikrishnan]

2 hours ago, Shadowraix said:

Stop trying to cut corners. Just go out and do it. Experiment. You learn even when you fail. Self actualization is a journey that will go on until your death. 

Yes, good advice. But i have a question I have seen a lot of this kind of explanation here like experiment. But dont u think people asking question regarding this are confused and have self doubt and is expecting a yes, a certainity from you people who have experience with this. 

[Knock]

1 hour ago, Harikrishnan said:

Yes, good advice. But i have a question I have seen a lot of this kind of explanation here like experiment. But dont u think people asking question regarding this are confused and have self doubt and is expecting a yes, a certainity from you people who have experience with this. 

That's the conundrum. To butcher a quote:

"The wise are full of doubts, but the fool is full of certainty".

Most of us know that we know nothing for certain. Much of life is circumstantial and requires context. Each question should be appropriately tailed to the individual persons level and situation. No one knows you better than you know yourself, so we can only give pointers, suggestions, generally accepted methods. There is no black and white answer, no right or wrong action. Only consequences.

[Leo Gura]

@Knock Don't forget that doubt is ultimately fear. And fear is delusion.