"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."– John Ruskin
Abraham Maslow developed a theory of motivation that was humanistic even though he fused his ideas with Freud’s, Fromm’s, Jung’s, Adler’s, and others. He viewed man as having the ability to develop, grow and become all that man can be.
Maslow believed that man’s physiological needs or drives were a starting point for behavior. For example hunger and thirst, are physiological needs which can dominate and require satisfaction prior to the higher needs in his theory. Following the physiological needs, when gratified, emerge the safety needs. A few examples of safety needs include: security, stability, dependency, and protection, freedom from fear, from anxiety and chaos and others. Infants and children provide illustrations and proof of what happens when an infant or child is brought up in an unsafe, threatening, or dysfunctional environment. Seeking safety, stability, preference for the familiar, and dealing with the environment are the next level in his hierarchy of needs. Two thoughts that occur about safety and protection are the dangers of trail running-one never knows what you are going to find on the trail and the chaos and destruction of people acting out in Great Britain. These events certainly can be dangerous and anxiety producing.
Next in the hierarchy when both the physiological and safety needs are fairly well gratified Maslow believed emerge love, affection and belongingness needs. Pangs of loneliness, of ostracism, of rejection, of friendliness, and rootlessness are motivators in our human herding tendencies. The absence or the loss of love and affection is a major theme in many of our novels and movies with its tragic consequences.
The need for a stable usually high evaluation of self, for self-respect or self-esteem and for the esteem of others follows. This means there is a desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for mastery as well as the desire for reputation or prestige, status, fame, glory etc. When there is positive self-esteem that leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability, being useful and necessary in the world. The opposite or the thwarting of these needs produce feelings of inferiority, of weakness, or helplessness.
The last need in the hierarchy is called self-actualization. This need refers to man’s desire for self-fulfillment and, namely the tendency to become actualized to become all that he can be in order to reach his potential. In other words man must be true to his own nature to become or to evolve. Remember the Army commercial “be all that you can be.”
For a moment let’s use ride and tie to illustrate ideas from Maslow’s theory. In this event, your physiological needs have likely already been met. So now you have to deal with safety both personal and equine. You get into good physiological condition so your body can deal with the pounding of the running and riding necessary in this event. The next concern is for safety of the equine and your ability to deal with the horse in these extreme conditions. A vet check focuses on the ability of the horse to continue by monitoring its physiological condition. There is no human check as you are expected to monitor yourself sometimes with the help of a pit crew. Belongingness and the affiliative needs are met with the human partner and friendships developed by being part of the group .Self-Respect, self-esteem, and prestige follow by mastering your equine skills and expertise as well as improving your running ability.
Come join the Cool Ride and Tie, gratify your hierarchy of needs, and hopefully, some day, you will develop and evolve toward self-actualization.
0 comments:
Post a Comment