self-actualization

What you really really want and need, but don't know you do (according to Maslow). It's when you’re so completely fulfilled internally (secure, happy, confident) that you can give yourself (time, effort, sanity) to something external (a cause, a job, those little teeny model boats inside bottles).

Self-Actualization is the first humanistic theory of personality by Abraham Maslow. Maslow believed we have a need for self-actualization, the predisposition to try to reach our potentials. The concept of self-actualization is a descendant of Adler's concept of striving for superiority.

Characteristics of Self-Actualized Persons

• Realistic orientation
• Self-acceptance of others and the natural world as they are
• Spontaneity
• Problem-centered rather than self-centered
• Air of detachment and need for privacy
• Autonomous and independent
• Fresh rather than stereotyped appreciation of people and things
• Generally have had profound mystical or spiritual, though not necessarily religious experiences
• Identification with humankind and a strong social interest
• Tendency to have strong intimate relationships with a few special, loved people rather than superficial relationships with many people
• Democratic values and attitudes
• No confusion of means with ends
• Philosophical rather than hostile sense of humor
• High degree of creativity
• Resistance to cultural conformity
• Transcendence of environment rather than always coping with it

Maslow decided on these characteristics after testing, interviewing, or reading the works of individuals he considered self-actualized.