It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.
Interpretation
Understanding our true desires is challenging and uncommon.
Abraham Maslow highlights the complexity of self-awareness and the difficulty individuals face in identifying their true wants and needs. He suggests that this clarity of purpose is not merely a common skill but a significant psychological milestone that requires introspection and self-discovery.
In practice
In a motivational speech, one might say, 'As Maslow pointed out, knowing what we want in life is a rare achievement, so take the time to really discover your passions.'
It looks as if there were a single ultimate goal for mankind, a far goal toward which all persons strive. This is called variously by different authors self-actualization, self-realization, integration, psychological health, individuation, autonomy, creativity, productivity, but they all agree that this amounts to realizing the potentialities of the person, that is to say, becoming fully human, everything that person can be.
Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.
The study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy
Marriage is a school itself. Also, having children. Becoming a father changed my whole life. It taught me as if by revelation.
It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.
I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane.
Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them.
Being free brings a lightness, a carefree surrender to all that is happening around you, and, above all, an acceptance of reality.
The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.
Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt.
Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.
I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character, the more easily we should reach them. I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that is not a question of growing taller, but of stooping lower and that we have to go down, always down to get His best ones.
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