[Neurons] 2008 Meta Reflections #3

[meta]

From: L. Michael Hall

2008 Meta Reflections #3

January 21, 2008



BECOMING MORE YOU




Two insight ideas swim around in my thoughts as I begin to write this reflection. One comes from Alfred Korzybski, the other from Abraham Maslow. One first one warns against the very thing the second one proposes. Is it a paradox-only a seeming contradiction or was there a true and irreconciliable difference? Yet both offer great insights about how to become more of who you are.

Korzybski passionately wanted to see the "soft" sciences of psychology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, etc. to advance and develop, generation after generation, in a way similar to how the "hard" sciences develop. To facilitate that he said we have to do what the hard sciences have done, namely, create an accurate linguistics for our field so that we can adequately map the content of our knowledge. That's why he invented the field of General Semantics. That's also why he warned that it is the confusion of map with territory that creates so much of the unsanity that we experience and that undermines our ability to have an adequate language. When we confuse map and territory, we identify one with the other and use the unsane term, "same," as in, "They are the same."


>From this Korzybski showed that it is identification that undermines our sanity and our science. He especially warned about the "is" of identity. "This is that." The passive "to be" verb (is, am, are, was, be, being, etc.) hides these unsane words. And from that came the focus on E-prime language- eliminating these "is" verbs from all of our speech and writing, something I undertook for 3 or 4 years to the dismay of many readers and editors!


Korzybski's point was that identification is unsane because nothing is ever "the same." Everything is always in the process of change. This is especially true of living things. So if identifying any two things is unsane, then to identify ourselves with anything that we think, believe, do, own, etc. is an even greater un-sanity. Whatever we say that we "are," we are not just that or exclusively that. We are more. We are more than our thoughts, our emotions, our speech, our behaviors, our relationships, our experiences, and so on.

Masow's focus was about human motivation, being, and becoming and that focus took him to self-development as people actualize their highest and best potentials. First studying healthy people and then the "best specimens" to discover what's possible in human nature, he began modeling self-actualizers to identify their characteristics and qualities. In that process he discovered the following as an indication of their development: 

"We can learn from self-actualizing people what the ideal attitude toward work might be under the most favorable circumstances. These highly evolved individuals assimilate their work into the identity into self, i.e., work actually becomes part of the self part of the individual's definition of himself. Work can be psychotherapeutic, psychologic (making well people grow toward self-actualization." (Maslow on Management, 1998)

Maslow here proposes what may seem to be the very opposite of what Korzybski urged. But before we draw that conclusion, let's first seek to understand what he meant by assimilating their work into the identity of self. These words occur in the context of work, management, and self-actualization companies. So it is about actualizing one's self with one's work and at work. Maslow's description is about how self-actualizing people relate to their work-those who have found a passion that fits their talents and who use their work to create a meaningful life that contributes, that leaves a legacy, and that gives them moments of peak experience.

The description then is about how they relate to effortful activity- to how they can give themselves in an engagement with what they do so that it becomes an expression of their self. And in doing that they enter the "genius state" where they are in "flow," where the world goes away, time disappears, and they are lost in an engagement so much that they "become one" with it. Maslow called this a peak experience -a momentary and fleeting moment that seems almost like a mystical experience, an oceanic experience.

So what do you think? Are these insights polar opposites and contradictions? I don't think so. One speaks about dis-identifying yourself from any and every identification in order to be know yourself apart from all of the connections and ways that you express yourself. The other speaks about bringing experiences into your ego-boundaries and using the ways you expression yourself as part of your self-definition. By the first, you become more authentically you as you discover you apart from identifications. By the second you use your uniqueness to expand yourself in your expressions that enriches your sense of self.

How can you become more you-more authentically the you that you can potentially become in this new year? First clear away every identification. That will give you a clean slate to start from. Then when you identify with something, do so mindfully and consciously so as to not deceive yourself. Now as you develop your talents and find ways to express your inner self, you can assimilate all kinds of experiences into yourself. You can create a synergy from your work so that it becomes your play-an expression of your real self.



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The Ultimate Self-Actualization Workshop

At this moment, I only have one workshop scheduled for 2008. Many other Neuro-Semantic Trainers will soon be offering this workshop and when I get their schedules, I will put them here. Our launch date for the New Human Potential Movement is May when I am anticipating that one to three dozen Neuro-Semantic Trainers to be presenting.

May 17-19, 2008 

ID Com. International, Montreal Canada. Isabell David. Phone: 450-224-5398 / 514-815-5457. idcom at cgocable.ca / idcom at idcominter.com Web: www.idcominter.com. 

I will be delivering this training in English (!) and it will simultaneously be translated into French. There will be other English only speakers there. Come and enjoy a taste and feel of Europe in Montreal.




And in GJ Colorado in July, 2008  -- Modules II and III of Meta-Coaching:

July 1-3  APG --- Accessing Personal Genius

July 5-12 Coaching Mastery

    Brochure available and discounts up to 30% for those who register early! :)








L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
Neuro-Semantics Ltd., Executive Director
ISNS - International Society of Neuro-Semantics
P.O. Box 8
Clifton, Colorado, 81520 USA
www.neurosemantics.com 
www.meta-coaching.org
www.self-actualizing.org 

Email: meta @onlinecol.com @acsol.net @mindfocus.co.za
(970) 523-7877
(970) 523-5790 FAX
(877) 686-2867 toll free in the USA only
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