Navigation bar      Home     Print document     View PDF document         Start     Previous page      47 of 153     Next page     End         Contents         42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52      47families and schools and work should be respectful, nonjudgmental,and trusting, i.e. places where one can make his/her own decisions,gain esteem, and use his/her talents. Otherwise, our growth would beslowed or reversed...and we would have problems. Maslow had impacton Humanistic education and on business management. But, he left itto others to discover if it is possible to develop specific methods ofspeeding up the natural development of self-actualization, such asthrough self-help techniques. Maybe in 100 years we'll all be self-actualizing even as teenagers. Positive addiction Addiction to drugs, alcohol, food, smoking, etc. are instances ofpowerful motivation, but they sap our strength and zest for doing ourbest. William Glasser (1965) believes there are other addictiveactivities that give us strength: jogging, meditating, writing a diary,exercising, relaxing, and so on. These are called positive addictions. Like Ellis and Knaus, Glasser focuses on the emotions underlyingour behavior (level II). First, we all want to be loved and to feelworthwhile. When we don't get what we want, we either have thestrength to try again or we don't. Thousands of us give up, accordingto Glasser, by saying, "Why try? I'd just fail" or "It's my parents' fault"or some other similar rationalization. When giving up and giving excuses don't remove the pain (of notachieving love or worth), we may turn to psychiatric symptoms, suchas depression, rebelling, going crazy, psychosomatic complaints, oraddiction to drugs, alcohol, or food. Painful as these conditions are,they are less painful than facing the fact that we have failed and givenup on obtaining love and self-worth. So, they are another self-con--they make it easier to give up and, at the same time, get somesympathy. What is Glasser's solution? Positive addictions. It isn't an easysolution nor is it for everybody. It takes six months to a year ofactivity (jogging, meditating, etc.) one hour every day to develop astrength-giving addiction. The activity must usually be done alone,with no demands or striving for excellence or self-criticism. There arethousands of joggers, bikers, meditators, relaxers, journal writers,exercisers, and other users of positive addictions, along with Glasser,who claim great benefits. They claim to get more results than justfeeling better and getting pleasure; they claim greater self-confidence,more energy, better imagination and ideas, more frustration toleranceand so on