With most of the lower order needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs having been met, the Millennials are focusing on self-actualisation albeit by a different name but for the self-same reason. The basic premise of self-actualisation is that passion drives purpose which in turn generates inspiration. Is this theory attainable or does it only apply to ennobling ideals and not to the mundane aspects of life?

Western Europe is currently facing a crisis of unemployment with record levels of productive people being unemployed. A cursory investigation reveals a startling dichotomy: the huge number of graduates who cannot find employment whereas on the other hand in France, for example, it is experiencing huge shortages in fields such as teaching and nursing.

This situation is indicative of a mismatch between supply and demand or more prosaically what jobs people want compared to what is available. The unemployed graduates typically have qualified in fields such as the humanities where demand is low to non-existent. An illuminating article in the Time Magazine a few years ago highlighted the fact that these youths would rather remain on the dole than accept such “menial” positions.

What in fact these youths were articulating albeit obliquely was the desire for “meaningful” jobs; those types of jobs which would befit their aspirations. This is flawed logic for numerous reasons. This blog will address the gulf between want the Millennials desire and the journey to attain that goal.

In this debate let us cast aside the entitlement aspect which the latest generation possess in spades. Do not let this flaw obscure the issue which underpins all human desire: the attainment of contentment through every activity that one embarks upon. As ones job consumes most of ones waking hours, it is primarily in that endeavour that one must achieve this sense of fulfilment.

Discovery process

Where these graduates are misinformed, is in believing that one can become self-actualised by obtaining a job that offers it as a possibility a priori. Obtaining self-actualisation implies that one has to discover it. It is the process of experiencing, of actions, of failures and of success that that are the crucial elements of the discovery process.

Instead what happens if these graduates were forced to become nurses and teachers? They would uncover their aptitudes? Some would find fulfilment in treating people, while others would find contentment in managing the process. Still others would rather control the drug stock and the inventory levels. Understanding one’s aptitudes is the first step in this life long journey.

The classical examples of occupations which generate the highest levels of self-actualisation are the arts, sports and research. But what about the entrepreneur such as Richard Branson or an investor such as Warren Buffet? Surely all professions can create fulfilment?

Elton Mayo in landmark research under the rubric of the Hawthorne Studies in the late 1920s and early 1930s showed the importance of groups in affecting the behaviour of individuals at work. This enabled him to make certain deductions about how managers should behave. He carried out a number of investigations to look at ways of improving productivity, for example changing lighting conditions in the workplace. What he found however was that job satisfaction depended to a large extent on the informal social pattern of the work group. Where norms of co-operation and higher output were established because of a feeling of importance while physical conditions or financial incentives had little motivational value. People will form work groups and this can be used by management to benefit the organisation.

The key aspect not mentioned above was the experiment was performed on low-level production workers. The highest productivity was experienced by the cleaners of the ablution facilities because they felt that their work was important and that what they did was appreciated.

Endogenous versus exogenous

A fallacy exposed in the attitude of these graduates is that they are subconsciously expecting an external party such as the government or big business to provide inspiring or meaningful work opportunities. How can some external party generate key components of this viz: passion, purpose and inspiration? These are clearly endogenous processes.

Like an uplifting speech by a rousing speaker, they can create a feeling of euphoria but this is transitory. The only enduring ecstasy or rapture is that created internally by oneself. This “drug” will produce a permanent high unlike that temporary phenomenon on being informed that one earned a huge bonus. Such an event produces temporary euphoria which rapidly dissipates and is forgotten.

Only an endogenous process derived through a process of discovery will produce enduring passion, purpose and inspiration.

Earnings

In the case of these graduates, many are equating passion, purpose and inspiration with earnings? The correlation between remuneration and self-actualisation is minimal to non-existent. In reality many of jobs perceived to as “meaningful” jobs such as being a researcher only offer median pay.

Job satisfaction is unrelated to pay grades. A lowly gardener on a country estate could experience more job satisfaction than a high-flying chief executive. Who would want to be the CEO of Malaysia Air under the current circumstances after two air crashes?

Use of one’s creative talents

Job satisfaction correlates more closely with the use of one’s creative talents, albeit it as gardener or a Salary’s Clerk, than to one’s pay grade.

What these graduates overlook is that by their own efforts they can make the job interesting. All jobs even the most interesting ones have components that one loathes.

The trick is to make that component a challenge. In the case of paperwork, one could find ways of making it faster, slicker or perhaps even automate the process totally.

In my personal life, I have exercised this tenet sometimes to such an extent that I forgot my initial loathing. Not that it ever became a passion of mine but what it did was to prevent the tedium of the process becoming a negative factor in the job. At high school I was forced to study Latin for which I had no interest at all. Only when I changed my attitude into viewing it in a positive light, did my performance change to the point where today I am gratified that I studied it.

A concluding view

Ultimately what does self-actualisation entail? Simply put, it is the life-long search for meaning. It will never represent some end-state, fully formed, waiting to be consumed. Rather it is the striving for that meaning which creates self-actualisation.

Through the stages of one’s life, what is important mutates. In the twenties the striving is more about establishing oneself whereas in the twilight of one’s life, it could be about one’s legacy.

One must embrace those aspects of one’s life which provide that passion, purpose and inspiration even if it means a career change at 40 years of age.

It is only through this process of continual striving and change whilst adopting the tenet of passion that endogenous purpose and inspiration will arise which is at the cornerstone of self-actualisation.

It is your life.

Attempt it.