Move over, Maslow!: Part Two
By Heather Bowers
IV Leader Staff, Oct. 19, 2006
4. Individuality
It’s not all about you, but in this case it is. Make sense?
Throughout our lives, we all have struggled to fit in with the crowd.
This idea reminds me of the typical mother or father saying,
“If Joey jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” Maybe, or maybe not. Too
often, we do what others are already doing because we worry about what they
think of us. Usually, however, those people are worrying about what we think of
them.
So what’s the solution to this problem? Live your life, not
someone else’s idea of your life. Formulate your own opinions and learn to trust
yourself. Nobody is right all of the time, but nobody is wrong all of the time
either (well… mostly). Thoreau hit the proverbial nail on the head when he said,
“If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears
a different drummer.”
5. Vulnerability
Why is it that vulnerability in others is admired, but when
we feel it ourselves we try to escape it?
Vulnerability is like your own system of checks and balances.
Before your head floats too high in the clouds and your ego threatens to crush
everyone around you, something happens that makes you feel vulnerable and makes
you realize that you are on the same level as everybody else. Don’t be afraid to
seek out help and don’t be afraid to fall on your face.
Many mistakes will be made, but many lessons will be learned.
Like Nixon said when he resigned, “You’re really tested when you take some
knocks—when sadness comes, because only if you’ve been in the deepest valley,
can you ever realize how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.” Our
vulnerability allows us to recognize that when we fall, we can dust off our
knees and keep going to the top.
6. Sense of Humor
Laughter can help lower blood pressure, increase muscle
flexion, and boost immune function, and having the ability to laugh at yourself
can ease your mental and emotional health. Being young at heart is having the
ability to see the world around you with imagination and wonder.
Too many people “grow up” and live in a gray world filled
with early morning coffee and noon meetings in large, bland boardrooms.
What’s the one thing missing between the dash to the subway
and the conference calls? Having fun. Life is too short not to enjoy it.
Will Rogers himself knew what this meant when he said, “We
are all here for a spell. Get all the laughs you can.”
Life may be a serious endeavor sometimes, but that doesn’t
mean you have to take it all seriously.