Retirement, Needs, and Being
How to become fully realized persons
Many people do not know how to be in the world Without work or our daily tasks in life, what are we?
Entrepreneur, Naval Ravikant say that:
Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired. You retire by saving up enough money, becoming a monk, or by finding work that feels like play to you.
What kind of work feels like play? What is play? Playing video games, which I don’t do, involves completing tasks and solving problems set up by the game designer. Play requires imagination and making multiple attempts at something because there is some kind of enjoyment in trying to achieve something you set out to accomplish. Play can involve others to help challenge, help, set goals. If you have a team, others can collaborate.
The point is that the monk and the person who had enough money to not worry about working is not subjected renting out their time for a paycheck. The monk might work for the monastery, but is not required to be a “productive “ employee. They need only need to keep their vows, do their chores, and go on with life like any other person, but without either need or want. But the “sacrifice of today” is something that many Americans are aware of. Most of us have been convinced that this is what we do to be a part of the society so that it could “work.” We work so the machine can work and then perhaps, one day, we receive meaning when we can.
The day is not “complete in itself” until we are unburdened from the paying for tomorrow with the efforts from today. For me, that seems like a sacrifice I would rather not make since today is the only thing guaranteed to me. Many people work until they can retire at 65 plus, and for a few of those people, work is rewarding and meaningful. However, when they retire, where is the reward and meaning? Why not find something that one cannot retire from and do that for the rest of our lives? Can something be both rewarding, sustainable, and is not something one is forced to do until the system finds us outdated and expendable?
My father was forced to retire and end his career as an accountant in 2020 after experiencing seizures and being hospitalized. He made some attempts to continue working, but was not able to do so. He was 85 at that time. Now without work, he lives in constant boredom. He wants to work, and even believes he can, but sadly cannot. He barely reads. He does not have hobbies. He cannot drive and not able to take care of himself without assistance. Conversation with him is about the same thing over and over: his seizures in 2020, not having work, and several nonsensical complaints about his health. It’s a hellish existence that I don’t completely understand. Perhaps if I was in his situation, I would be doing the same thing because that is all I would know.
But I’m more than blessed to be able to do otherwise, to engage in ideas that are meaningful to me and have work that is deeply satisfying and that I can continue to do, as long as I can hold a thought and express it. Otherwise, existence itself would be harsh, with all of us just looking for the next thing to do. We all have the opportunity instead of being in the world and figuring out a sense of who we are. We live in a society that most of us don’t have to struggle with the basics of food and shelter. Even in societies that are seemingly impoverished, people still seek higher needs. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, at the summit is self-actualization, but it is not a desire; it is a need. To be a fully actualized human is to seek personal fulfillment, to achieve one’s true potential, to fully grow into what one is meant to be. Without this we are less than human. Other animals, those without self-awareness do not need to achieve it. However, if we, being fully aware, do not realize who we ought to be, then what are we?
Maslow saw that self-actualization and transcendence were “growth needs,” ones that continue to develop in us, that we will continue to grow and have a sense of who we are in this world. The lower needs, however important, are “deficiency needs.” These needs, when satiated, give rise to other needs. Maslow estimated that only two percent of the of the world’s population would ever achieve self-actualization, but this is a need that increases in motivation as one is closer to achieving it. It is like almost reaching the summit of a mountain. There is the driving desire to reach the top. Whereas, when one fulfills a lower need, such as the need to have self-esteem, there is very little desire to achieve more. The damning thing about todays world is that many of the “deficiency needs” are artificially met through technology. Young people who are addicted to video games or social media, have replaced “safety needs” and “self-esteem needs” for an ersatz form of the those needs. It is the fast food of needs. Therefore, they become stuck on these lower levels and are never satisfied. “Not by bread alone;” we cannot subsist in that way.
Maslow also identified what he though was 15 traits of a fully actualized human:
1. They perceive reality efficiently and can tolerate uncertainty;
2. Accept themselves and others for what they are;
3. Spontaneous in thought and action;
4. Problem-centered (not self-centered);
5. Unusual sense of humor;
6. Able to look at life objectively;
7. Highly creative;
8. Resistant to enculturation, but not purposely unconventional;
9. Concerned for the welfare of humanity;
10. Capable of deep appreciation of basic life-experience;
11. Establish deep satisfying interpersonal relationships with a few people;
12. Peak experiences;
13. Need for privacy;
14. Democratic attitudes;
15. Strong moral/ethical standards.1
Perhaps a person can obtain all or most of these traits in their lifetimes through self-actualization. But the pursuit of transcendent purpose can led to these as well.
Me in front of Pollock’s Mural on July 11, 2021
In 1970, Maslow added “transcendent needs” in which a person moves beyond self in order to achieve mystical experiences or encounters with nature and science. I would argue that the need for transcendence and need for self-actualization go hand in hand. As one seeks transcendent experience, the sense of self does not disappear, but is truly realized. A few years also, I had the privilege of finally standing in front of Jackson Pollack’s mural at the Guggenheim in New York City. It was a sacred moment of pilgrimage, up until my in-laws stepped across a security line on the floor which alerted the museum guards to come by. I had to explain to them it was a painting with an estimated worth of $140 million dollars and that they could not casually get too close to it. Before the museum alarms went off, standing in front of the painting, I fully felt a sense of epic scope of the painting and the awe of what lead up to that moment of creating a masterpiece of abstract expressionism. I also saw myself as a part of that history, no matter how insignificant, as a person and artist, as someone who also contributed to the world of ideas, that my life lasts beyond myself.
True union with the divine is never the obliteration of self, but self truly realized. I can spend the rest of my life in pursuit of that, and yes, in doing so it can feel like play.
McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 21). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html