Growth Forces

Growth Forces

Focused Model

The effective ChangeAgent needs a well-focused working model of goals which is his own. It is well, nevertheless, to be cognizant of what leading behavioral scientists have described as GrowthGoals? as one develops the unique model in which he can genuinely and positively believe, and to which he can commit his efforts with enthusiasm.

AbrahamMaslow defines personal growth as

• "the various processes which bring the person toward ultimate self-actualization."
  • The issue raised by this definition is, What is the understanding of self-fulfillment or actualization of one's potential? On the basis of clinical observations, he describes the characteristics of Healthy, or SelfActualizingPeople?:
    • Superior perception of reality
    • Increased acceptance of self, of others and of nature
    • Increased spontaneity
    • Increase in problem-centering
    • Increased detachment and desire for privacy
    • Increased autonomy
    • Greater freshness of appreciation, and richness of emotional reaction
    • Higher frequency of peak experiences
    • Increased identification with the human species
    • Improved interpersonal relations
    • More democratic character structure
    • Greatly increased creativeness
  • http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=418&C=246

Delight greater than anxiety

"We can consider the process of healthy growth to be a never ending series of free choice situations, confronting each individual at every point throughout his life, in which he must choose between the delights of safety and growth, dependence and independence, regression and progression, immaturity and maturity. Safety has both anxieties and delights; growth has both anxieties and delights. We grow forward when the delights of growth and anxieties of safety are greater than the anxieties of growth and the delights of safety."

• Abraham H. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1962), p. 45.