Self-Actualization

Less Than You Are Capable Of Being

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“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
– Abraham Maslow

Taking the path of least resistance, coasting along, making things easy for yourself, is an insidious cause of unhappiness. It seems like just the opposite would be true, that the way to increase happiness is to decrease all of the various stressors in your life.

But it’s not the stressors or the tension that cause distress, it’s the meaning behind them. If you’re walking a path that seems to be helping you become what you’re capable of being, this path is going to be difficult, there’s going to be more stress and tension than if you were selling yourself short. But you’ll accept the stressors and tension as necessary evils, even embrace them, since they’re proof that you’re on the right track, they’re side-effects of your forward progress.

There are so many people out there who seem to have everything they could ever want yet remain dissatisfied with their lives, and it’s often simply that they sacrificed becoming what they knew they were supposed to become in favor of all of those external variables that they convinced themselves would make them happy.

Anything less than you are capable of being is not good enough, even if no one else sees it, even if your path is one of fame and acclaim. When it comes to your self-actualization you are the only one who can judge whether or not it has occurred. If it hasn’t there is no reason to expect any other outcome than unhappiness.