14 Points of Emotional Temperature

Personal development is an individual matter and something that is developed through time and to experience. We do not use other people as a barometer for our own growth. Instead, it is better to have a standard indicator to evaluate our personal growth.

Abraham Maslow’s 14 points describe a person who is a self-actualizing person. He gave us this as an emotional thermometer against which we can measure how we are doing as we go through the journey of personal growth. We will always have our faults, but these fourteen points are what we can use to check the progress we make over time.

14 Points of Emotional Thermometer

1. You will be able to judge people accurately and efficiently. You can decipher the fake, the phony, and the dishonest. You will be able to perceive reality and be comfortable with reality. You will not be frightened by the unknown.
2. You will accept yourself, accept others, and accept nature without thinking about it much one way or another. You will enjoy your physical side without guilt. You will be able to be yourself, and you will dislike artificiality in others. What you will feel guilty about are shortcomings that could be improved: laziness, hurting others, prejudice.
3. You will be spontaneous, simple, and natural. Your codes of behavior may be strict, but they will be your own.
4. You will be problem-centered; you won’t fight the problem to defend your own ego. You won’t spend time worrying about yourself but will do what needs to be done. You will be concerned with the good of people in general.
5. You will need detachment and privacy. You will like to be alone more than the average person does. You will be able to take personal misfortunes without reacting as the ordinary person does, violently.
6. You will become independent of your environment. Less healthy individuals must have people around them, but the self-actualizing person, who is concerned with personal growth, may be hampered by others’ clinging demands.
7. You will have the capacity to appreciate freshly, again and again, the essential goods in life. Any sunset is as beautiful as your first sunset; any flower is of breathtaking loveliness even after seeing a million flowers. You will derive ecstasy, inspiration, and strength from the basic experiences of life-not from going to clubs, money, or parties.
8. The spiritual experience may be somewhat familiar to you. You may experience being simultaneously more powerful and helpless than you ever were before, of great wonder and awe, of the loss of place in time.
9. You will have deep sympathy and affection for human beings in general.
10. You will have a few very close friends.
11. You will have an unhostile sense of humor. The kind of jokes Abraham Lincoln told-mainly about himself-will is the type you like.
12. You will be creative, original, and inventive. This does not mean unique creativeness, but rather that you will be creative within the scope of your natural talents. You will find joy in a new approach to your task.
13. You may not always be a conformist. You will get along with the culture in various ways, but while you will not be rebellious in the adolescent sense, you will resist conformity.
14. You will make some mistakes. You will not be free from guilt, sadness, and conflict-because these conditions are standard in our lives today. But you will be able to accept the blame, pick up the pieces, and go on.

Why Is This Important?

“75 percent of careers are hindered for reasons related to emotional competencies, including the inability to handle interpersonal problems, unsatisfactory team leadership during times of difficulty or conflict; or inability to adapt to change or elicit trust.” – Center for Creative Leadership

Having a barometer to gauge our emotional maturity is essential because it is an objective way to assess our emotional maturity through time. As we grow in years, our emotional maturity should increase as well. Our emotional intelligence is critical if we want to accomplish anything in life.

Our emotions affect our thoughts, words, and actions, so developing a positive and mature emotional state will help us achieve whatever we want in life.

“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand. If you don’t have self-awareness. If you cannot manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far.” – Daniel Goleman

Source

Wallace, H. & Masters, L. (1989).  Personality Development for Work. 6th ed., South-Western Publishing Co. Cincinnati, Ohio. p. 135-137