Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

by Jim Murphy

Self-actualizers, Maslow noted, with their greater vision, shared a unique ability to engage in moments in which they felt truly alive, creative, and integrated. Maslow’s high achievers selflessly pursued a purpose beyond themselves. In light of this, we’ll refer to these high achievers as selfless actualizers, or people who saw the world through a lens beyond self, and thus had the freedom to live fully. Here are nine characteristics Maslow used to describe them: Total absorption They learn to experience key events fully, vividly, and selflessly, with complete concentration. Personal growth They don’t get hung up on lower level needs or desires (i.e., approval from others), but seek to learn and grow. Their goal is to experience the moment, more so than anything tangible they can get from it. For them, the means is the end; the journey is the enjoyment, not the result. Self-awareness Selfless actualizers do the work to uncover their true motives, emotions and abilities. They are guided by their own code of ethics, which often makes them feel like aliens in a foreign land. Gemeinschaft This German word means fellowship and community. Maslow felt that belonging is a fundamental human need and that connecting with others was an essential part of self-actualization. Gratitude Selfless actualizing people have the wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naïvely, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy, however stale these expe...