Alfred Adler's Creative Self and Tony

"Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it.…Success is shy — it won't come out while you're watching."
– Tennessee Williams

On Tuesday, Tony and I were on the trail. While on the trail, Tony told me about his Coloma run last Saturday. During that particular run, he mentioned that he caught up to another runner. This younger runner attempted to keep in front of Tony, but was unable to do so. For Tony, that was his “glory”-being able to beat another competitor. He also told me about a second record that he holds per posting on Strava, which also delights him.

During our trail experience, we also talked about creating a documentary as Tony recently figured out a problem related to perfecting our Skype interviews. Tony enjoys the challenge of solving various technical issues that confront him. He works hard at perfecting and thereby eliminating problems. We both laughed as we talked about beginning new careers.

I told Tony about Alfred Adler, the psychiatrist from Vienna. Dr. Adler, once a disciple of Freud, developed his own theory of personality. While Freud assumed that man’s behavior is motivated by inborn instincts, Adler emphasized social urges, consciousness and the development of the ego in his theory. In Adler’s theory, he talked about a striving for superiority. Adler thought the final goal of man was to be: 1. Aggressive 2. Powerful and 3. Superior. And a person attempts to become superior by developing his intellect or in achieving muscular strength. And that the details of his existence are exemplified by his habits, his recreations, his daily routine, and his relations to his family, friends and acquaintances. Practically everything he does, man does with an eye to this ultimate goal. So man perceives, he learns and retains what fits in his style of life. Further, Adler also talked about a creative self. This creative self means that man makes his own personality and that he constructs it out of both heredity and experience. It is the creative self that gives meaning to life. It creates the goal as well as a means to the goal.

Tony’s quest to continually to improve his running is paramount as evidenced by his training and his keeping track of miles, times, elevations, etc. Further, his motivation to overcome, especially technical software challenges is also clear. So if you talked with Tony, you would understand that. His life space correlates with him as being the master and not the victim of his fate. In this regards his personality style corresponds to Adler’s way of thinking.

So, in part, you’re likely to find Tony either on the trail, in his office or around his property, either fixing or making things better for all.

He keeps moving, laughing, smiling, loving, bonding and appreciating.