[Neurons] 2013 Meta Reflections #8

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2013  #8

February 11, 2013

 

 

ASSESSING SELF-ACTUALIZATION

 

 

One of our purposes in Neuro-Semantics is to enable ourselves and others to
actualize, or make real, our highest and best.  Highest refers to your
highest visions about life, your values for how to live, and meanings for
making life meaningful.  Best refers to your top performances, your best
skills and competencies, and taking your actions so that they reflect you
when you are in the zone of performance.  Yet to do that with mindfulness
requires that we be able to assess where we are now and where we are as we
progress, in other words, assessment of our self-actualization.  And that
means creating benchmarks for self-actualizing development.

 

The first attempt to do this occurred in 1964 when Everett Shostrum met with
Abraham Maslow and took the 15-17 characteristics of self-actualizing
people, which had been discovered in over 20 years of modeling, and began to
create behavioral indicators of those characteristics.  The result?  The
POI, the Personal Orientation Inventory, a questionnaire of 150 force-choice
questions around 10 subsidiary distinctions of living the self-actualizing
life.  The POI was, and continues to be today, a well developed instrument
for measurement and assessment.  And if it weren't so expensive, I'd been
promoting it in all we do in Neuro-Semantics, but alas, to take it and use
it costs $128 for each person, each time. 

 

When I complained about that some years ago (2009), Tim Goodenough
challenged me to begin creating our own assessment scale.  In January 2010,
Tim and I completed a prototype and ran it with the Leadership Team of
Neuro-Semantics.  Since that time, we refined it, I wrote a description of
it, and lo and behold, we have our very own Neuro-Semantic
Self-Actualization Assessment Scale.  You can now find it on the website:
<http://www.neurosemantics.com/assessment-scale-form>
http://www.neurosemantics.com/assessment-scale-form.

 

This Assessment Scale invites you to look at your driving needs- those lower
and higher needs that drive your neurology, physiology, and psychological
states of mind and emotion.  For each of the four lower needs and for the
fifth level of self-actualization needs, you will find seven or more
distinctions.  The scale invites you to gauge yourself in terms of how well
are you adequately meeting your needs.  Are you just "getting by?"  Then you
would put a check in the middle.  If you are not getting by very well, then
you will be to the left in the red zone.  If you are more than just getting
by, you are thriving or optimizing, you will be to the right of the center
line, in the green zone.

 

Getting by refers to being able to fulfil the need so that the drive goes
away.  That's how the lower needs work.  When adequate gratified by
true-satisfiers (things that truly correspond to and fit the need), then the
disequilibrium, the inner tension, the driving urge reduces and then
vanishes from awareness.  That will be a first sign of using a true
satisfier.  Another sign: energy!  Vitality.  You will feel good and be able
to focus on the next-level needs.

 

If you are not using true-satisfiers, but false-satisfiers, then the drive
doesn't go away.  In fact, the drive for that need, whether food, drink,
shelter, money, sex, etc. will dominate more and more.  You may become
obsessive about it, and then compulsive in your actions.  False-satisfiers
and false-beliefs about our needs, for us humans, will create neurotic
needs.  We will semantically load the need with meanings, understandings,
beliefs, etc. that the need cannot bear and the result we will become
obsessive-compulsive about the need or some false-satisfier (drugs, money,
gambling, etc.) and the false-gratification makes things worse. 

 

Now you can assess where you are and how you are dealing with, handling,
coping, and hopefully mastering your innate driving needs.  The lower needs
are "animal" needs because the higher intelligent social animals have those
needs as well- the need not only for survival and safety, but for
connection, bonding, belong, and for recognition of their place in a group.
The mechanism that drives these lower needs is deficiency and so Maslow
designated them, the D-needs.  These are the needs that do not go away until
fulfilled.  And when fulfilled, they go away.

 

The higher or self-actualization needs are those which are with us from the
beginning- in nascent form- but which become fully present to us as we
fulfill the lower needs.  These are the uniquely human needs.  These are our
needs for knowledge, meaning, understanding, beauty, order, mathematics,
excellence, fairness, justice, contribution, making a difference, giving
love, etc.  The mechanism governing these needs is abundance and being-ness.
Abundance means that when you gratify them, they grow.  They do not go away,
they do the opposite- they expand and become fuller.  Being-ness means that
unlike the lower needs that are instrumental needs, means to an end, these
are non-instrumental, they are ends (not means).  These are for living in,
for being, they are valid and satisfying in and of themselves. 

 

So where are you?  Go and take the assessment.  It will take 30 minutes when
you do it the first time and then you can print off the results.  Each time
you do it thereafter, will go quicker and quicker as you get more acquainted
with it.  If you need a Meta-Coach or a Neuro-Semanticist to work through
the completed form with you- check out Trainers on
<http://www.neurosematics.com/> www.neurosematics.com and Meta-Coaches on
<http://www.metacoachfoundation.org/> www.metacoachfoundation.org.

 

.         It is this assessment that we use in the Unleashing Vitality
training and the next time I will do that training and all of the other
three Self-Actualization trainings will be May in  Rio de Janiero, Brazil
(May 25 to 31 and June 1-3). If you are interested, contact: Dr. Jairo
Mancilha - jairo at pnl.med.br

 

 

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?

Neurons:  Get your free subscription to the weekly International \Post on
Neuro-Semantics by Dr. L. Michael Hall. Subscribe at:
wwww.neurosemantics.com 

 

Solutions:  Sign up for the Neuro-Semantic Newsletter ---
<http://newsletter.neurosemantics.com/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506/
hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506> newsletter.neurosemantics.com.  This
is a monthly newsletter for anyone new to Neuro-Semantics.  Femke Stuut,
Editor.

 

Coaching: For world-class Coach Training - The Meta-Coaching System:
www.meta-coaching.org and \
<http://www.metacoachfo/hich/a/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506%20f3150
6/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506%20undation.org/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31
506/hich/af31506/dbch/af31505/loch/f31506> www.metacoachfoundation.org.
Meta-Coach Reflections sent every Wednesday to the group of Licensed
Meta-Coaches.

 

Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org  

 

NSP --- Neuro-Semantic Publications: Order books from Neuro-Semantic
website,  <http://www.neurosemantics.com> www.neurosemantics.com  click on
Products and Services and then the Catalogue of books.  Order via paypal.  

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20130211/c71fbd95/attachment.html>