Tag: Self Actualization

  • The power of solitude

    Ready.

    B. Lorenzo Buckinchere

    Mar 16, 2025

    If a plane goes even 1 mile outside of its designated parameter, it’s far off course, and it’s hard to get back on. The same is true for friend groups that’s wrong for you, or even family for that matter.

    Two’s company and three’s a crowd. A wise man once told me that if you give the devil a ride, he’s going to want to drive.

    Say for instance, you were born into a family of attorneys. Your father is a lawyer, your grandfather is a lawyer, and his father before him was a lawyer. For the entirety of your life so far, you have been told that you must follow in their footsteps. You go along to get along even though you have always wanted to be a singer.

    Legal papers may bore you, but music is your passion. If you don’t break free from among them and take a plunge into the deep blue waters to do some soul searching and seek truth, you will go on believing that law is your passion.

    This would have been most unfortunate because not only have you missed your true calling, but doing so has caused a ripple effect that led to a brain drain in your preferred industry. You could have been the single greatest vocalist of all time. But now, you have allowed someone less deserving to steal your destiny because you think you’re supposed to be an attorney.

    Likewise, over on the wrong side of the tracks, you always wanted to be an attorney. You tell your family and some of your neighbors out of naivety, hoping they would encourage you. Not only do they not support you, but they actually call you a divestor because they all collectively have a crab in a bucket mentality.

    In order for you to get along, you foolishly turn down a scholarship to study abroad just so you can fit the mold for society’s expectation of you. Five years later, you are now a single mother of four with no man in the damn house, flipping burgers for a living. All your old school mates are living the dream, while you can’t even find the time to pick up a book after work.

    Not only do you not know who you are, but the legal profession has also suffered a brain drain. You could have been the most legendary attorney of all time, but now an innocent man being railroaded by the system will lose his case and get sent to the chair because you missed your calling. That condemned man could have gone on to father a son who would’ve found the cure for cancer, but that will never happen now either, and on and on it goes.

    It also doesn’t help that it’s difficult to break out of certain mental conditioning. Once you’re off course, it’s hard to get back on, and it usually takes something truly drastic taking place in your life in order to snap you out of it.

    But before that drastic thing happens, you can choose to take a plunge into the deep blue waters and do some soul searching. What does that look like? It could look like many things, but whatever shape it assumes, solitude is definitely at its core.

    When you shut out the useless noise and clutter, your brain starts talking, and when your brain finally shuts up, your heart starts talking. That’s usually when you remember what you wanted to do when you were fourteen, and still living at home with no responsibilities.

    Solitude can be brutal, especially if you are an extravert, but even if you are not. It is when you are truly alone with no distractions that all the mistakes of your life will flash before your eyes. But it is also when you will discover who you really are.

    Before that, you were seeing yourself through the lens of other people’s perceptions of you, but those perceptions are skewed based on their own biases and subjectivities. If you want to get an unbiased, objective perspective of yourself, you must be willing to enter your isolation arc.

    Not only should you be willing, but also prepared to face whatever you will discover, because all of your life choices and mistakes might hit you like a ton of bricks. It could get pretty intense. You are not going to have any support, you will only have yourself.

    If you are looking for some kind of higher power to be there for you to lean on in those moments, maybe you’re not ready for this. Your isolation arc might even reveal that the higher power in question is not really what you thought it was, but that topic deserves its own article. The bottom line is that the isolation arc is going to screw you raw with no lube, there is no buffer for this.

    But once you are done, your covert enemies will be exposed for what they truly are, and it will then become clear to you exactly why they are your enemies. Most importantly, you will never make another decision out of fear, which means that no one will ever be able to manipulate you. After that, you will essentially become a whole new person, and your trajectory for the future will be back on course. It’s going to be a beautiful day.

    © Copyright 2025 The Buckinchere Publication, SP.

    All rights reserved

  • A post-modern take on Maslow’s Hierarchy

    Ready.

    B. Lorenzo Buckinchere

    Feb 9, 2025

    As a human being, one will experience different needs at different times of life. It is a part of being alive, and you will have these needs as long as you remain living. There are different needs that will arise at different times of your life, based on your current story arc. Some needs are more basic than others, such as food, warmth and water. The more basic the need, the more likely it is to be repetitive.

    Of all the philosophers to explore the nuances of the human condition, none has come close to breaking down the hierarchy of needs quite like Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist of Russian-jewish heritage who lived between 1908 and 1970.

    Maslow first proposed the hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, “A Theory on Human Motivation,” where he listed a five tier structure containing a group of human needs in ascending order, suggesting that the fulfillment of one need would motivate an individual to tackle the following need on the chain.

    Maslow’s hierarchy is controversial, and contains some inconsistencies. Due to its hierarchical structure, many are of the few that the order of each need must remain intact, as one is not able, or should not be able to skip levels. But in spite of its imperfections, Maslow’s hierarchy is nonetheless the most frequently referenced hierarchy as it pertains to human growth and motivation.

    On the first tier, there are physiological needs, which include; breathing, food, water, warmth, clothing and sex. On the second tier, there are safety needs, such as; money, housing and transportation. On the third tier, there are social needs, such as; family, friends, sexual intimacy and a sense of community belonging.

    On the fourth tier, there are needs of esteem, such as graduating from college, releasing an album, publishing a book, or getting married. Then there is the fifth tier on the hierarchy, a need for self-actualization.

    Maslow may have structured his hierarchy with the best intentions in mind, however, there are some inconsistencies relating to the order of achievement. For example, except for breathing, one typically doesn’t expect for physiological fulfillment to be freely given unless one is a child, or disabled.

    Even with adult disabilities, one would have to be lucky enough to live in a country with a good welfare program, or else be left for dead. However, that is the exception. For the most part, you need a job in order to buy food. But in order to gain employment and maintain it, one needs to be liked and accepted by the group, or else they will either be used and discarded, or flat out rejected right off the bat.

    Social acceptance comes from level three on the hierarchy, so therefore, based on that reason alone, it seems as though one should gain social acceptance first in order to survive.

    Social acceptance is usually rooted in childhood connections that would have otherwise lasted a lifetime. But what if you constantly relocated throughout your childhood? Or what if you are just socially awkward? What if you are just an introvert?

    Centuries ago, or in fact, even as recent as the 1980s, you would be left for dead without social support. Conformity is primordially ingrained deep within our collective subconscious, that is why all normies would rather conform to society than embrace their true nature.

    Luckily today, with the advent of the internet, you can literally create something that adds value to the lives of others, and pay someone who is naturally more socially outgoing to market it for you. If you find that you are naturally an introvert, I recommend becoming an author and enjoying the benefits of faceless fame, the best of both worlds.

    However, creating something that adds esteem is found at level four of the hierarchy. One may choose to approach the hierarchy based on one’s own tastes and interests.

    For example, an extravert seeking employment may prioritize social conformity, even to the detriment of morality, while an introvert may choose to prioritize esteem. Another cause for concern is being able to secure food with no safe place to leave it, or no transport to even procure it.

    So here is my revised version of Maslow’s hierarchy as it relates to modern life. Particularly as it relates to eccentric introverts, because my blog is not for normies.

    First of all, make safety a priority. Once you are safe, do some soul searching with the intent of discovering your niche. This requires long, lonely periods of isolation from the world. My advice to set you up on the right path for rediscovering your niche is to remember what you loved to do when you were 18.

    It also helps if you keep in mind that you will naturally be good at whatever it is that you enjoy doing. That niche will provide esteem while also providing for all of your physiological and safety needs.

    Once you have rediscovered your niche and you are dedicated to your purpose, you will find that the right social support naturally forms around you. Others with whom you share a common interest will naturally gravitate towards you as they too become inspired.

    So once again to recap, safety first, then esteem, then physical needs, then social support. Self-actualization can only be achieved by becoming exceptionally good at performing your niche, the very best. And that can only be achieved through many decades of consistently showing up and honing your craft.

    © Copyright 2025 The Buckinchere Publication, SP.

    All rights reserved