The Mission Concept
Abraham Maslow introduced
to us the concept of a health-based psychology and described the healthy person
as "self-actualizing." He presents this
same idea of public service under the concept of a "life mission."
Maslow found that the healthy individual often
conceived of their life purpose in the sense of what he called a
"mission." In his book "Motivation and
Personality" he said:
"Our subjects are in general strongly focused on
problems outside themselves. In current
terminology they are problem-centered rather than ego-centered. They generally are not problems for
themselves and are not generally much concerned about themselves, e.g., as
contrasted with the ordinary introspectiveness that one finds in insecure
people. These individuals customarily
have some mission in life, some task to fulfill, some problem outside
themselves, which enlists much of their energies."
This is not necessarily a task that they would
prefer or choose for themselves; it may be a task that they feel is their
responsibility, duty, or obligation.
This is why we use the phrase "a task that they must do" rather than the
phrase "a task that they want to do."
In general these tasks are non-personal or unselfish, concerned rather
with the good of mankind in general, or of a nation in general, or of a few
individuals in the subject's family.
With a few exceptions we can say that our subjects are ordinarily concerned with basic issues and eternal questions of the type that we have learned to call philosophical or ethical." [i]
Maslow
published these words in 1954. The sense of mission and duty is clear. Yet,
what I find the most fascinating is that these ideas, in the history of
thought, are not new.
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