Are there other options for choosing a life strategy? What will we do with the received material?
Why is it necessary for an ordinary person?
What will it give you and how can it change your life if you use the principles of a life strategy?
Personal effectiveness and success in life are based on life strategy.
Only the person who has the path he follows can be considered a successful person and only he can be effective.
Personal effectiveness
But before answering this question, it is necessary to understand what personal effectiveness is.
Personal effectiveness is those skills, knowledge, and abilities that lead to the maximum development of a person’s potential and the realization of his true life goals.
And for this you definitely need a map that you will follow later in order to realize yourself.
This card is called the life strategy.
Imagine a box of wooden balls. If we put an iron ball in this ball and close it, and then open it, then nothing will change. If we close this box again and shake it well, then the iron ball will be at the bottom of this box, because it has its own path and uses every change in the environment to move along it.
Also, a person who has a life strategy uses any changes in the world around him: whether positive or negative, it doesn’t matter, to move towards his goals. No matter what happens, no matter what troubles and adversities occur in life, temptations or positive events, a person who has his own life strategy always uses it to his advantage.
Imagine a person on a crowded bus who is about to get off, he uses every bump, braking or other swing in order to get closer to the exit as quickly as possible. He has his own path, he knows where he is going.
What controls your life?
How do you react to what happens in your life? Do your reactions and actions always move you forward, just like a person on a crowded bus?
Try to at least remember yesterday.
What guides your daily routine? Do you think about your global goals?
As you evaluate yesterday now, what could you do differently during the day to make the day more effective for you?
If you have come closer to your global goals in a day, and if these goals are really yours, then you will get much more satisfaction from this day.
Following your true goals is the most positive way to live each day as an incredible adventure.
And the strategy of life is essentially a map of this adventure of life.
What does it mean to have a life strategy?
Having a life strategy means accepting the world as it is, with all its shortcomings and difficulties, but at the same time, also with all its resources and opportunities that it provides. Accept that the world around you and other people do not owe you anything. And at the same time, the world around you gives you all the resources and opportunities to achieve your goals.
Yes! You already have everything you need to achieve your goals. The question is, do you see this and take responsibility for your life?
Accepting the world as it is means taking responsibility for your life and everything that happens in it.
And when you take responsibility for your life, you begin to control your life. Only from now on. And by managing your life, you are already beginning to change the world around you. And from this moment on, a person who has a life strategy begins to control the world around him. The world begins to change according to the adventure map of your life. The resources you need seem to appear on your way. Although, of course, there is nothing supernatural about this, you just didn’t see them before, didn’t pay attention, because it didn’t matter, because the filter of your perception was unconsciously configured somehow differently.
To a first approximation, of course, you will not immediately have an ideal picture, an ideal strategy that includes your real true goals.
To get to this point, you need to sort out your desires and goals of the lower levels.
Structure of your goals
On the first level we have our fears, anxieties, what fills the ordinary life of 95% of the population, what ordinary people are usually guided by.
If you want to achieve what everyone else does, then you can continue to stay at this level. In order to move forward, it is necessary to solve the problems of this level and rise to the next one.
On the next level there are various unfulfilled desires from the past.
Until you close them, until you fulfill what you once wanted but never got, you will not see what is above.
And above there is a level that also needs to be passed, level of imposed goals. Something that you accept as yours, but which, by and large, is not yours. This is what is given to you by society.
Well, for example, the fact that a person should have a big car, an apartment, etc. It is not at all necessary that you really need it. But until you realize for yourself what you really need, you will live within the framework of these imposed external desires.
When will you decide and reach your real goals- behind this, behind everything lies something more, what we call a mission or purpose in a person’s life.
A correctly built life strategy is always based on changing the world for the better. And to get there you need long and hard work, so very few people get to this point. But it bears fruit.
When your life strategy is built...
When you formulate your life strategy, you will receive enormous resources of energy.
Every day you will wake up in a great mood and in anticipation of new victories.
Every action you take will be subordinated to your goals and will move you towards even greater efficiency and success in life. The world around you will always favor you. And you will always get what you want, you will feel full of strength, living every moment of your life as efficiently as possible. And it is natural that people will follow you and will help you move towards your goals, in order to themselves touch this source of energy that comes from you.
You will learn how to create an effective life strategy in the article “How to create a life strategy?”
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UDC 159.923:316.477
PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF AN PERSONAL LIFE STRATEGY
M. A. Lyakhova
PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF THE PERSONALITY LIFE STRATEGY
An overview of approaches to studying the concept of “life strategy” is presented. The structural components and typologies of life strategies are considered.
The article presents the review of the approaches to studying the concept “life strategy”. It focuses on the structural components and types of life strategies.
Key words: life path; life strategy; life values.
Keywords: life way (path); life strategy; life values.
Modern society is characterized by changes in the economic and social spheres. In this situation, there is a need to understand that without a deeply thought-out, responsible attitude towards the future - not only the immediate, but also the rather distant one - a person cannot count on further progress in all spheres of social and individual life, since the time of social change, destroying the usual ways life, changing the system of individual priorities and values of a person, his life style, leading to the disappearance of some and the emergence of other forms of activity, creates the possibility of transforming a person from a subject of activity into a subject of life, the creator of his life path and his own destiny.
The concept of “strategy” has deeply entered into modern psychological science and occupies an increasingly strong position, although its content and specificity remain largely uncertain. The theoretical basis for studying the problem of life strategy are works that consider such categories as “life path”, “subjective picture of life path”, “meaning of life”, “life scenario”, “life style”, “life options”, “ time perspective”, “life perspective”, “life orientation”, “life task”, “life programs”, “life position”, etc. (K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, A. Adler, B. G. Ananyev, R. A. Akhmerov, T. N. Berezina, E. Bern, S. Buhler, A. A. Grachev, E. I. Golovakha, N. V. Grishina, V. N. Druzhinin, P. Janet, F. Zimbardo, L. N. Kogan, E. Yu. Korzhova,
A. A. Kronik, V. Lens, N. A. Loginova, J. Nutten, R. Ornstein, E. Powell, L. A. Regush, S. L. Rubinstein, J. Royce, S. L. Rubinstein, S. Yu. Stepanov, L. V. Sokhan, Y. A. Surikova, Y. Stewart,
B. E. Chudnovsky, K. Steiner, etc.).
Strategy H. Thome refers to a consciously planned, intention-regulated action of an individual, which makes up a small part of the individual’s responses to the hardships of life. According to the concept of H. Thome, the individual is in constant interaction with the surrounding, primarily social, world. Man constantly creates something in the world and, as a result of his unity with the world, simultaneously transforms something in himself.
Emphasizing the role of mental determination of actions, H. Thome argues that behavior is controlled rather by the perceived (understood, interpreted) than the objective situation. Of course, the actual properties of the situation are reflected in the individual world of a person, but the peculiarities of their perception are to a strong extent determined by the dominant “themes” - his central aspirations, dominant values.
K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya in her famous monograph “Life Strategy” notes that life strategy in its most general form is the constant alignment of one’s personality (its characteristics) with the character and way of one’s life, building a life, first based on their individual capabilities and data, and then with those that are developed in life. The life strategy consists of ways of changing, transforming conditions and situations of life in accordance with the values of the individual, defending the main thing at the cost of concessions in the private, overcoming one’s fear of losses and finding oneself. The way of solving life’s contradictions (constructive, courageous, passive) characterizes a person’s socio-psychological and personal maturity. The life strategy of different people is that one manages to immediately determine his main life line, his professional prospect, while the other can initially see several prospects, directions for his self-realization and wants to first try himself in different areas, and then choose the main direction. As noted by Yu. M. Reznik and E. A. Smirnov, a life strategy characterizes, on the one hand, a system of a person’s sociocultural ideas about his future life, which orients and guides his current (everyday) behavior for a long time, and on the other hand, a method conscious planning and design by an individual of his own life through the gradual formation of his future.
O. S. Vasilyeva, E. A. Demchenko understand life strategy as a way of being, a system of values and goals, the implementation of which, according to a person’s ideas, makes his life more effective. According to the authors, the most
The most important characteristics of a life strategy are the level of responsibility, the degree of meaningfulness of life, the person’s system of values and relationships. The main indicators of the effectiveness of a person's life strategy are his life satisfaction and mental health. It should be noted that the concept of “life strategy” is used in cases where they characterize the fundamental line of life behavior of an individual. A person in this perspective appears as a subject of life relationships that develop in the process of his activity, communication and are mastered through cognition; are implemented in the spheres of public and personal life.
In the last decade, the number of works devoted to the study of life strategy has increased in domestic science. When addressing this issue, modern researchers define life strategy as:
A certain (more or less conscious) way for a person to construct his own life in accordance with his inherent system of values, meanings and goals, a regulator of social behavior. Life strategy organizes the integrity of life activity, determines a person’s way of being, acting as the most important criterion of maturity and psychological well-being (A. E. Sozontov);
The structure of life goals, developed in the time perspective of the psychological future (M. O. Mdivani, P. B. Codess);
A form of purposeful organization by a person of his own life, including his attitude to his own capabilities and resources, their actualization and implementation (E. P. Varlamova, S. Yu. Stepanov);
A method of conscious planning and design by an individual of his own life through the gradual formation of the future (V. A. Berkovsky, M. A. Belugina);
A complex dynamic education, within the framework of which life’s aspirations are realized, an assessment and design of the future state of life is formed, the main ways and means of achieving the desired result are outlined (V.B. Bolshov);
A socially conditioned system of human orientation (in the personal and public spheres) for the long term (D. Yu. Chebotareva);
Established (stable, typical) ways and forms of human life, aimed at satisfying his needs, achieving goals and life meanings (O.V. Rudakova);
An individual way of constructing and realizing a person’s life goals in a time perspective and compliance with one’s own value orientations, needs, personal qualities, meanings of one’s own life (O. A. Voronina);
A person’s system of ideas about his future life, orienting and directing it
everyday behavior for quite a long time, a way of conscious planning and design by an individual of his own life. An individual’s life strategy characterizes the individual’s way of life, direction in terms of “aspiration” in development, ways of changing, transforming living conditions in accordance with values, meanings, goals (L. G. Buzunova, M. R. Plotnitskaya, N. L. Shaposhnikov) .
Thus, most authors understand life strategy as a form or method of conscious planning and design by a person of his own life in accordance with his inherent system of values, meanings and goals, through the gradual formation of the future (i.e., the main ways and means of achieving the desired result are outlined), a person's orientation towards the long term.
Domestic researchers note that in the substantive aspect, life strategy primarily represents a person’s orientation towards certain “basic” values, characterized by a system-forming quality in the structure of personal values, as the most general meanings of his life, some ideal, abstract goals of life, realized and accepted by a person. “Basic” values act as a kind of core around which the structure of personal values is organized. The core of a life strategy is a certain value syndrome, which is based on the “basic” values accepted and implemented by a person.
In addition to values as the core of a life strategy, its structure distinguishes a number of peripheral components: ways of resolving life
contradictions that reveal the peculiarities of a person’s coping with uncertain, stressful situations of the most general nature that have a significant impact on the course of his life; situations containing a conflict between social demands, the expectations of other people and one’s own individuality. Each life strategy of an individual, as a complex motive for activity, also includes in its structure the following components: an image of the future (dream), the meaning of life, norms and principles of behavior, and life goals.
T. N. Berezina cites such parameters of “life strategies” as identified by different authors, such as the scale of planning, its duration, strategicity, predictability, and two methods of time planning: optimal (for subjects with long-term regulation) and non-optimal.
As M.A. Belugina notes, a person with a formed life strategy plans his life far into the future, the life path is developed in detail, each stage is full of expected events, the life goal is set at each stage in the form of steps for implementation. Life strategy is an internal image
personality, but is based not only on internal, but also on external conditions of human life. The author considers life strategy as a system consisting of the following interconnected and mutually influencing elements:
1. The content of the future life path, which includes a life position (a generalization of subjective and objective personal achievements that open up one or another perspective of life movement, a set of life values of the individual, allowing, one way or another, to build an image of an ideal future) and life goals of the individual (characterizing the dominant sphere of an individual’s life and determining the ideal image of future life).
2. Organizational characteristics of the individual’s life strategy, which include: the length of the time perspective, the direction of the time perspective (past - present - future) and the structure of the planned life path (i.e., how eventful are the various planned periods of a person’s life, which stages of the life path are more structured, which ones are less).
From the point of view of N. N. Fedotova, life strategies include social orientations (directions towards achieving a desired social position through inclusion in certain social groups), cultural orientations (acceptance of certain cultural models) and personal orientations (representations of intimate moments of life) . Consequently, they determine the personal, social and cultural future of the individual. The author, considering behavioral strategies in the labor market, identifies two main types of strategies: passive and active.
The main features of life strategies, according to V.N. Kormakova and D.Yu. Chebotareva, are: time duration, realism, the ratio of positive and negative expectations, coherence of life events, structuredness or differentiation of the future, highlighting the immediate and distant prospects of one’s life. Life strategy is a concept that is applicable to life in general: based on one’s own experience (past), a person projects “pessimistic” or “optimistic” options for life prospects (near or distant future), determining priorities and modes of behavior in the present.
O. V. Rudakova identifies the following structural components and parameters of life strategies: the presence of ideas about the past, future, present; integrity/disunity of life path; presence/absence of meaning in life; presence/absence of means and ways to achieve life goals; the need for external support when setting goals and overcoming difficulties; degree of awareness of one’s own life; ability for self-knowledge and life
nary reflection; the degree of implementation of life plans; life satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
O. S. Vasilyeva and E. A. Demchenko identify qualitative and quantitative characteristics of life strategy. Life goals, being features of an ideal image of a person’s future life, and the value system on the basis of which these goals are built can be classified as qualitative characteristics, since they reflect its content
What a person strives for. The authors include the level of responsibility and meaningfulness of life as quantitative characteristics of a life strategy, since they can influence a person’s satisfaction with life. The authors highlight the strategy of creativity - this is a way of being in which a person consciously or unconsciously takes the position of an active creator of his life, relying on values such as love, beauty, goodness, development, etc.
D. Yu. Chebotareva notes that the formation of life strategies includes the following phases: preliminary design of a lifestyle (choice of goals, priorities, way of life); implementation (ways of behavior aimed at achieving goals and objectives); life satisfaction (assessment of results). The principles for the formation of life strategies are the nature of a person’s life activity and the degree of his social activity. As noted
N.F. Naumova, an element of life strategy is a type of rationality, i.e. a method of not only solving, but also setting some life task, goal setting, claims, priorities, social means, etc.
In a study carried out by N.V. Grishina and M.V. Salitova, based on the use of a biographical questionnaire, attention was paid to “transitional moments” in a person’s life path - situations requiring decision-making, and the circumstances that determine these decisions, in particular independence in the choice made. Analysis of biographical data made it possible to identify human tendencies in the choice of life strategies as stable patterns of behavior in significant situations. The most important characteristic of strategies is independence in making significant life decisions, which turns out to be associated with a number of human psychological characteristics. In particular, it is significantly positively related to the level of internality and negatively related to the use of non-constructive strategies for overcoming difficulties; a high, although not reaching the level of statistical significance, indicator of the connection between the parameter of independence and the level of general meaningfulness of life was recorded. In general, people with pronounced independence in making vital decisions are characterized by adequate and stable self-esteem, emotional stability, activity and independence, self-control and the ability to establish communication connections.
With repeated use of N.V. Grishina’s biographical questionnaire, the following data were confirmed: the parameter of independence in decision-making in vital situations, the ability to act despite the prevailing circumstances invariably turns out to be one of the characteristics of a successful, mature, self-realizing person who is the subject of his own life.
From the point of view of E. Fromm, a market economy based on competitive relations has an adverse effect on mental health and personal development: a person faces a choice - “to have” or “to be”, i.e., or to have as much as possible (including material goods), or develop in oneself all the abilities and strengths inherent in nature, “to be many.” And often, under the pressure of social norms, people prefer to “have” to the detriment of the prospect of personal development.
A. Meneghetti writes that the time orientations characteristic of a person form a certain type of relationship to life, expressed in unique life strategies. On this basis, the author distinguishes two types of people. The first refers to life as “unconscious”, as such, with its connections and relationships in the present, with the manifestation of attitude to each specific life event or relationship, but not to life as a whole. Therefore, he perceives life as a whole as a stream of phenomena in which he is included and is called upon to submit to this stream. The life strategy of the second type is characterized by awareness, comprehension of life as a whole, which includes a reflexive analysis of what has happened and what is happening. A person realizes and analyzes his life as a whole, as a unity of past, present and future, taking an active position in creating his future, thinking about it, laying it in the present.
In reflexive psychology, two opposing life strategies are distinguished - life exhaustion and life generation. Life exhaustion is a life strategy determined primarily by environmental conditions. It is characterized by the consumption of existing resources and opportunities coming from the surrounding world, but does not have an internal source of development and new opportunities. This life strategy is aimed at satisfying human biological and social needs, which are fundamentally limited. Life generation (life-creativity) is a life strategy determined primarily by the person himself, who is capable of cultivating in himself the resources and capabilities necessary for his creative existence, the implementation of his plans and desires, for creative creation. Life-non-creativity manifests itself in the form of self-development - cultivating one’s own uniqueness by expanding one’s own capabilities. In the social sphere of interaction, it manifests itself in the form of co-creation - communication that develops the mutual uniqueness of people. In the sphere of human relations with
By culture, life creativity manifests itself in the form of creativity (creation), when a person becomes a subject of culture, creates its material and spiritual values.
T. E. Reznik, Yu. M. Reznik identify the following main types of life strategies: the strategy of life well-being, the strategy of life success and the strategy of life self-realization, which are based on three different, although interrelated positions: “to have” (receptive activity ), “achieve” (“achievement” activity) and
“to be” (creative or “existential” activity). N.F. Naumova and N.M. Davydova, who focus on the unsustainable nature of development due to social transformations, consider life strategies as “adaptation strategies” and “survival strategies” [cit. from: 31, p. 6].
A practical type of attitude to life is characteristic of people who prefer to respond to external influences with direct action. A practitioner often begins to act without spending time thinking about a plan of action. He corrects his actions directly in the process of activity, without analyzing the reasons and without thinking about the consequences. His actions, as a rule, are decisive, and if he does not “break the woods,” he can accomplish many useful things while the contemplator thinks about the problem from all sides and comprehends it on a global scale.
E. Yu. Korzhova identifies two types of personality development in life situations: “event-based” and “personal.” “Event-based” development is development primarily through external situation-events. The source of development is located outside the individual. A person tends to unconsciously (or semi-consciously) place himself in situations (and from the outside it seems that he accidentally finds himself in them), in which he finds himself forced to change and develop internally. This is how the “outer man” develops. “Personal” development is internal development, externally eventless (or eventless). This type of development is characterized by conscious work on oneself, for example, by turning to religion, or to psychotechnical techniques, or
to one form or another of psychoanalysis. This is how the “inner man” develops.
When addressing the problem of an individual's life strategies, a common approach is one that considers two types of motivation (motivational strategies): motivation for success and motivation for failure. Motivation for success refers to positive motivation. With such motivation, a person, when starting a business, has in mind the achievement of something constructive and positive. Motivation to fail is a negative motivation. With this type of motivation, human activity is the need to avoid breakdown, blame, punishment, and failure. This motivation is based on the idea of avoidance and the idea of negative experiences. As A. Bandura notes, those who consider themselves “incapable of achieving success are more likely to mentally imagine an unsuccessful scenario and focus on the fact that everything will be bad.”
G. G. Diligensky, characterizing modern personal sociotypes, believes that a person is distinguished by a motivational strategy (the search for a single principle of self-regulation of motives), leading to life orientation. He highlights:
1. Motivational strategy of standardization (life under the “power of the standard”) - here “needs for oneself” develop exaggeratedly, “needs for others” are suppressed, a person adapts to social roles as much as possible, his behavior becomes emphatically normative.
2. Orientation towards situational relief - here the person finds himself cut off from moral roots, subordinate to emotional impulses and drives, he is characterized by a lack of logic of behavior and responsibility to anyone; a synonym for such a life is “live as you please.”
3. Orientation towards survival or attitudes such as “live somehow”, “stay on the surface”, “preserve what you have”. Those who take this path give preference to fatalism and passivity, striving to get “now” and “here” what they will lose over time; in adults, this type of orientation is often combined with a family orientation, family altruism (service to the family), as well as a “career” orientation, social advancement.
Researchers (K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, L. I. Antsiferova, A. A. Baranov, R. M. Granovskaya,
A. R. Kudashev, L. V. Kulikov, I. M. Nikolskaya, S. T. Posokhova, A. A. Rean, etc.) are increasingly turning to the study of adaptation strategies that a person uses not only in everyday typical conditions , but also in difficult life situations. During adaptation, according to
N. S. Khrustaleva, personal changes occur in people. The degree of positivity or destructiveness of these changes is largely determined by the completeness and accuracy of the picture of the expected future. Thus, V.P. Kaznacheev developed a classification of individuals depending on the uniqueness of their
the course of adaptive processes, consisting of two types: sprinters, who are characterized by rapidly developing and intensively occurring, but at the same time short-term adaptive changes, and stayers - able to endure long-term loads, maintaining high performance and optimal state of physiological systems.
S. T. Posokhova combines adaptation strategies into two groups: strategies for self-disclosure of the individual and strategies for self-preservation of the individual. The strategy of self-disclosure is that when the usual external or internal conditions of existence change, the individual abandons outdated, no longer effective stereotypes of interaction with society, culture, objects, nature and himself. This is a strategy for transforming oneself, conditions, and previous way of life. Its core consists of internal or external transformations carried out by the individual himself, overcoming difficulties and unsatisfactory relationships. At the same time, the individual is focused exclusively on his own reserves, his own internal potential, and is ready to be responsible for his actions and decisions, for his fate and the fate of the people around him, society as a whole. The dominant motive for success ensures high focus, organization and structure in an individual’s life activities.
The strategy of self-preservation consists in using such a method of interaction with the changing surrounding reality, which ensures that the individual, first of all, preserves himself as a biological unit. This strategy provides the opportunity to preserve unchanged the existing way of life and previously effective stereotypes of relationships with social and economic institutions, with people around and with oneself. A person refuses to actively search for a way out of problematic situations, afraid to take responsibility for making risky decisions. He assesses his own abilities to resist current events as minimal, and expects help from the outside. In the absence of external assistance, the search for the culprits of the “lost paradise”, towards whom obvious or veiled aggression is demonstrated, takes on special meaning. Aggressive reactions in the form of devaluation of personality can also find a way out towards oneself.
A. A. Rean, A. R. Kudashev, A. A. Baranov consider the vector of activity and its direction to be a criterion for the types of adaptation process. The first type of adaptation process is the direction of the activity vector “outward” (the active influence of the individual on the environment, its mastery and adaptation to oneself). The second type - the direction of the vector of activity “inward”, is associated with an active change by the personality of oneself, with the correction of one’s own social attitudes and habitual instrumental, behavioral stereotypes (a type of active self-change and active self-adaptation to the environment). When
If the two considered options are unacceptable for an individual for some reason, the adaptation process proceeds according to the type of active search in the social space for a new environment with a high adaptive potential for a given individual. The most effective type of adaptation process, according to the authors, is a probabilistic combined one, based on the use of all variants of the above “pure” types. The choice of one or another option is made as a result of the individual’s assessment of the likelihood of successful adaptation for different types of adaptation strategy (vector “inside” or “outside”). When choosing a strategy, an individual evaluates: the requirements of the social environment - their strength, the degree of hostility, the degree of limitation of the individual’s needs, the degree of destabilizing influence, etc.; the potential of the individual in terms of change, adaptation of the environment to oneself; the cost of effort (physical and psychological costs) when choosing a strategy for changing the environment or a strategy for changing oneself.
P. Costa and R. McCrae focus on the influence of personal variables that determine an individual’s preference for certain behavioral strategies in difficult circumstances. When choosing a coping strategy, the role of personal resources is essential. One of the personality traits that ensures successful coping with stress is responsibility, which allows you to assess the situation and your own resources, prepare and make a decision on the use of adequate behavioral strategies. A stronger resource, according to D. Navon and D. Gopher, are such personality traits as: optimism, a sense of connection with the world, faith in life values and a person’s understanding of his abilities.
The life strategy of an individual is associated with the need for self-realization; this issue was addressed by K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, L. A. Antsyferova, L. A. Korostyleva, V. E. Klochko, D. A. Leontyev, E. V. Galazhinsky and others. By self-realization L.A. Korostyleva understands “the realization of opportunities for the development of the “I” through one’s own efforts, co-creation, collaboration with other people (near and distant environment), society and the world as a whole” [cit. from: 13, p. 12]. Self-realization as a life orientation is addressed to those sides of the “I” that have not yet emerged, but which are assumed to be potential possibilities. A person strives to live his own life, not only giving himself to society, he wants to realize himself in various forms of life in an individual, specifically inherent way. Self-realization meets the initial desire to realize one’s capabilities, live a decent life, and achieve what one deserves according to one’s own criteria. Self-realization is, first of all, the use of one's individual abilities in a creative way. What is natural in this case is an organization of life in which the regulator is the goals formulated for oneself by the person himself. Comparison of the result with the achieved
A set goal allows you to either increase the level of demands on yourself and set more complex goals, or develop those qualities that are necessary for the implementation of set but not yet realized goals.
Self-realization in life is a type of life strategy characterized by a person’s conscious and practical orientation towards creative change and transformation of his own life, towards his personal self-improvement and self-development as a subject of life creativity. Thus, N. Yu. Khryashcheva considers the ability to be creative (as a process that has certain specifics and leads to the creation of something new) one of the most important conditions for successful self-expression, comprehensive self-realization and adaptation of the individual in the modern world [cit. from: 13, p. 56].
According to E. Locke and G. Latham, the process of personality development is naturally associated with the setting and implementation of goals. Self-realization from this point of view can be presented as a process of consistent implementation of life goals. Goals cause a discrepancy between where a person is at the moment and where he would like to be, the tension generated by such a discrepancy leads to actions.
S.I. Kudinov distinguishes activity, social and personal among the types of manifestation of personal self-realization. The active self-realization of the subject is characterized by self-expression in various types of activities and provides a high level of professional competence (the activity may not necessarily be related to the official profession of the subject, it could be amateur sports, artistic creativity, study, etc.). Social self-realization is associated with the fulfillment of a humanitarian mission, social economic, socio-political, socio-pedagogical or any other socially useful activity. Personal self-realization contributes to the spiritual growth of a person, ensuring at the first stages the development of personal potential: responsibility, curiosity,
sociability, hard work, perseverance, initiative, erudition, creativity, morality, etc.
M. R. Plotnitskaya identifies the main strategies for personal self-realization: progressive and receptive, which differ in indicators of self-realization (satisfaction, productivity), as well as value-semantic determinants transmitted by the dominant life orientations of possession-being. A progressive strategy of self-realization is an internally determined strategy for achieving and self-realization of an individual in society. Characteristic features are a holistic, harmonious perception of the world and oneself in it; processuality, continuity of self-realization, wide range of spheres of self-realization, high degree of reflection, spontaneous self-expression adequate to one’s own potential.
The receptive strategy of self-realization is an externally determined strategy of “consumption” of various kinds of social successes and benefits by an individual. The characteristics of the receptive strategy of self-realization are: fragmentation, lack of a holistic concept of oneself in the world, dominance of social meanings of self-realization, narrowing the range of life spheres of self-realization.
Thus, life strategy determines the personal, social and cultural future of the individual. Based on theoretical analysis, it can be assumed that a life strategy is built on the basis of a life position and includes: “basic” values; image of the future (presence/absence); a set of ideas about the past, future, present; meaning of life (presence/absence); life goals, means and ways of achieving goals (presence/absence); life satisfaction. Also important parameters are the level of responsibility, degree of activity, initiative, and independence.
As follows from the above review, the basis for constructing a typology of life strategies can be: attitude to life (positive/negative), method of conflict resolution, external conditions (environment, situations-events that a person is forced to obey), internal conditions (personal potential, reflection); creative activity of the individual.
The typology we propose can be used to study the integrity of ideas about the future, as well as the ability to independently construct and choose a life strategy among various categories of youth.
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A person, living in society, constantly faces many demands placed on him from parents, teachers, friends, strangers, etc. Each person, in turn, has his own needs, desires, and interests that he strives to realize. In real life circumstances, there is often a clash between the objective demands of reality and the needs of the individual, which gives rise to various kinds of life contradictions. The degree of integration of life requirements with the needs, interests, and values of the individual leads to the formation of various life strategies.
In foreign and domestic psychology, the number of works devoted to the consideration of life strategy and its varieties is limited. This aspect was studied in detail by K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya and R. Pehunen as part of a study of the issue of a person’s life path.
In a broad sense, K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya gives the following definition of life strategy - it is “a fundamental ability of an individual, realized in various life conditions and circumstances, to connect his individuality with the conditions of life, to reproduce and develop it.” In a narrow sense, it is the development of a specific life solution to overcome life’s contradictions.
In his works, R. Pehunen notes that a life strategy is developed by the individual. Personality in this regard is divided into three subsystems based on the vital function performed - control, action and feedback systems. Each of the subsystems is responsible for different aspects of life strategy.
Control system regulates the goal-setting characteristics of life strategy:
Ø having an idea about your future;
Ø avoidance or desire for it;
Ø degree of hierarchy of life goals;
Ø externality/internality of the locus of control over one’s own life;
Ø the presence of a time perspective (connection between the past, present and future);
Ø range of life interests;
Ø external/internal orientation of goals.
Action system responsible for achieving life goals.
Ø level of planning of actions to achieve set goals;
Ø rigidity/plasticity in the use of means of achievement;
Ø specificity of establishing social contacts and activities in general.
Feedback system characterizes the degree of openness in expressing emotions of success or failure.
As a basis for the classification of life strategies, R. Pehunen proposes to consider the way in which an individual resolves emerging life conflicts between the demands and opportunities of the social environment and the individual’s habitual way of life. Based on the above, Pehunen identifies two general types of life strategies: at the stage of detecting a conflict and at the stage of overcoming it.
In the stage of conflict detection, a person, according to the author, is capable of demonstrating defensive strategies of two subtypes: conservatism and avoidance. The essence of the conservative strategy lies in the individual’s desire to maintain a familiar way of life, not paying attention to changing external conditions. A conservative life strategy has a reluctance and inability to change in new conditions of life, a clear and rigid hierarchy of life goals, punctuality in performing daily activities, and limited life interests.
The avoidance strategy manifests itself either in increased activity of the individual in less conflicting areas (active avoidance) or in isolation (passive avoidance). A person with such a strategy tends to perceive the future as a threat and the unknown, which leads to inconsistency in life goals that do not take into account the real capabilities of the individual. In the time perspective, there is a predominance of the present with a focus on satisfying one’s own needs. The emotional sphere is characterized by a predominance of depression and anxiety.
After a person has discovered a life conflict, Pehunen believes, he is able to demonstrate one of three subtypes of life strategies that characterize the person’s behavior in a difficult life situation:
Ø Refusal strategy;
Ø Adaptation strategy;
Ø Development strategy.
Refusal strategy manifests itself when life difficulties are perceived by a person as insoluble, which leads to the cessation of the fight against them. At the subjective level, this strategy manifests itself in the presence of a feeling of helplessness, which is reflected in the picture of the life path as a whole in the form of a narrowing of a person’s social contacts and areas of activity. A person exhibiting a life strategy of refusal is characterized by the perception of life in the form of numerous life failures, a negative perception of the future, which leads to a lack of planning. In the life perspective, one observes the predominance of the present, the egocentric nature of life goals, limited by the need for survival. Such a person constantly needs external help, showing conservatism in terms of the chosen methods of action. There may be a gradual loss of interest in the past, a cessation of the active search for social contacts.
If available adaptive strategy the individual accepts the changed life situations, as a result of which he strives to change his lifestyle and himself. Pehunen identifies three types of possible adaptation: passive, active and in the form of adaptive self-restraint. If a person adheres to a strategy of passive adaptation, then the difficulties that arise in life are perceived by him as granted and irreversible. As a result, such a person places responsibility for his own life on external authorities. In the case of a strategy of passive adaptation of life, the person is under the control of external forces (submission to authority, religion, society, the will of others, relying on circumstances). The life perspective is limited to the present with the absence of a clear hierarchy of goals. Social contacts are limited to the search for support and submission. There may be some dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs.
A person with active adaptation is able to change his own attitude towards his activities and develop new ways of behavior and activity under the restrictions set by the current situation. Active adaptation is characterized by the presence of a life perspective that has a wide potential for future opportunities. The present manifests itself in the search for new opportunities and the construction of plans for their implementation. Life is subordinated to its own, hierarchically structured goals with a diverse arsenal of means that allows easy adaptation to changing life situations. Social contacts and activities are characterized by breadth with the presence of a particularly significant sphere.
In the case of adaptive self-restraint, a person performs only those activities that are familiar, without mastering new ones, taking into account the changed conditions. The life perspective includes several life goals, in which the dominant one does not stand out. Life goals are based on the goals of society. Such a person is satisfied with the present, showing a desire to maintain a familiar way of life, using generally accepted methods in his activities. Social contacts are limited.
Development strategy represents overcoming a life conflict, manifested in the search and mastery of new life areas of activity.
K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya in one of her works examines in detail the issue of typology of life events. The author notes that the fundamental aspect of a life strategy is the issue of correlating the personality type with the way of life, and therefore two criteria for life strategies are identified - internal and external. The internal criterion refers to the degree of activity of the individual in building his own life. The external criterion for identifying life strategies is the objective requirements of social reality. Activity is a leading parameter that permeates all spheres of human life. It manifests itself as “the ability to achieve an optimal balance between what is desired and what is necessary.” Based on this, all life strategies are divided into two general types - active and passive. In addition, Abulkhanova identifies two forms of activity: initiative and responsibility. Their ratio may or may not be optimal. Active strategies can be with a predominance of initiative or with a predominance of responsibility.
Predominance initiatives in life strategy leads to the fact that a person is in a state of constant search, dissatisfaction with what has been achieved. A state of satisfaction may arise not at the final stage of activity, but during the process, when there is novelty and awareness of a huge number of possibilities. When showing activity, such a person focuses mainly only on the desirable, and not on the possible. When faced with reality, which often differs from the imaginary, in this case the inability to independently identify the goals, means and stages of exiting the current situation, to identify what is dependent and independent of the individual is manifested. External indicators of the life path may be limited to a small set of life events, but on a subjective level, life is perceived as very rich, since “such a person constantly creates contradictions.” Thus, an initiative life strategy is characterized by a constant expansion of the range of life activities, the presence of a personal perspective, manifested in the construction of a large number of multi-stage life plans, and a constant search for new living conditions.
Based on the method of self-expression in life, subtypes of life strategies of proactive people can be distinguished. For some, the way of self-expression in life is through self-giving and self-waste. Such people actively “involve many people in the circle of their creative searches, take responsibility not only for their scientific, but also for their personal destiny.” For others, the initiative is limited to “good and good intentions,” which almost never come true. The degree of activity is determined by the nature of the individual’s claims and the characteristics of the connection with responsibility. Externally, the life path of such a person consists of a large number of events that manifest themselves only in an external change in the previous way of life, i.e. in this case there is a tendency towards external dynamism of life.
In the case when a person’s life strategy shows a predominance responsibility a person “always strives to create the necessary conditions for himself, to foresee in advance what is needed to achieve a goal, to prepare to overcome difficulties.”
According to the author, responsibility can be of various types, which leads to the development of various life strategies. The executive type is characterized by a low ability of self-expression, lack of confidence in one’s own abilities, focus on the support of others, subordination to external control, fear of change, desire to maintain the usual course and structure of life, and lack of one’s own living space.
The self-sacrificing (dependent) type finds self-expression in fulfilling “duty”, which leads to satisfaction. As a result of dependence on others, there is a constant loss of one’s own “I”. The cessation of reciprocal feelings on the part of others is regarded as a failure in life.
The conservative type has detailed life stages and lacks long-term prospects. Such a person is satisfied with the usual course of life; the mere thought of possible changes is frightening. In the process of life, one often observes a rejection of one’s own interests and a desire to fulfill other people’s demands.
The lonely type is characterized by a variety of life paths as a result of the realization of responsibility in various roles. The prevailing attitude is that it is possible to survive only in solitude.
Abulkhanova calls the optimal life strategy one in which a person correlates his capabilities with life’s tasks, while constantly developing his potential. A person establishes the correspondence of his vital interests and living conditions on the basis of criteria chosen by himself or received from the outside.
In addition to active ones, Abulkhanova recognizes the existence of various types of passive life strategies. The main strategy is mental care, within which there is a strategy of hope and a strategy of life's dead end. When the strategy of hope prevails, a move away from a certain life contradiction into another area is manifested. At the same time, the person admits his inability to find a way out of the current situation, having new prospects in other areas. In a situation of internal impasse, the person does not see any alternative to continue real life.
In our opinion, to highlight the main parameters of life strategies, it is necessary to use three systems of activity planning - aspirations, self-regulation and satisfaction, proposed by Abulkhanova-Slavskaya. Claims determine the contours of life, its limits, internal and external supports. They differentiate the living space, determining what the subject himself will do, and what he attributes to external conditions, expecting results from those around him or from the prevailing circumstances. After differentiation of the living space, the self-regulation system is activated, i.e. a system of means and ways to achieve set goals, as well as the ability to overcome life’s difficulties. In characterizing this system, it is important to pay attention to the amount of effort expended, perseverance, confidence, accuracy of achievement criteria, division of living space into what is dependent and independent of the individual. The main criterion is the individual’s reliance when achieving a result - either on himself or on others. In addition, it is important to indicate how diverse and flexible the arsenal of a person’s means is, and her behavior in a situation of disapproval. By satisfaction, Abulkhanova understands “a form of feedback between an individual and the ways of his objectification in life (personal achievements, assessments of others, etc.).”
To summarize the description of the issue of life strategy, we will highlight the most significant, in our opinion, structural components and parameters:
· Having ideas about the past, present and future;
· Integrity/disunity of life path;
· Presence/absence of meaning in life;
· Availability/absence of means and ways to achieve life goals;
· The need for external support when setting goals and overcoming difficulties;
· Degree of awareness of one’s own life;
· Ability for self-knowledge and life reflection;
· The degree of implementation of life plans;
· Life satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
_____________________
1. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A. Psychology and personality consciousness. M., 2000.
2. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A. Life prospects of the individual // Personality psychology and lifestyle / General. ed. E.V. Shorokhova. M., 1987.
3.Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A. Life strategy. M., 1991.
4.Pehunen R. Developmental tasks and life strategies // Personality psychology and lifestyle / Ed. E. V. Shorokhova. M., 1987.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, psychologist, mediator-trainer,
systemic family therapist, trauma therapist
“Either you are part of the solution or you are part of the problem.”
Eldridge Cleaver
The intensity of life of a modern person leads to the fact that he often has no time to think about what he wants, how satisfied he is with his life, whether he is living as he planned.
Work, affairs, worries about the house, about children acquire power over our lives. We devote a good half of our lives to satisfying basic basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, a car), spending twenty or even thirty years.
And in the middle of life, as a rule, we ask ourselves one of the “eternal” questions: can my life be called successful? And what is success, what is the secret of success, are there laws and rules of success, traps and pitfalls on the path to success, and finally, what is a life strategy for success and how much does it depend on our activity? This is what we are concerned about seriously and for a long time.
Is it possible to learn success? Among the fundamental knowledge that a modern person receives at school or university, there is practically no knowledge of how to properly build his individual life.
For many centuries, people have been studying in detail stamens and pistils, the human skeleton and the location of muscles, mathematical formulas and rules of grammar, but they do not receive any knowledge about the role and significance of consciousness and the unconscious in human life, about will and responsibility. They do not know the laws by which groups and teams are formed and managed, the laws of forming a true partnership both in the family and in business life.
It is not possible to understand such a complex topic as success without knowledge of psychology. Knowledge of psychology helps a person understand himself, see his individuality, study his character, and understand his own life strategy for achieving success.
What is success and what does it depend on?
Let's first think about what prevents us from being satisfied with the fullness of life? The first difficulty that almost every one of us faces is the question how to separate your personal life from a life that is under the “close control” of others: parents, bosses at work, colleagues and friends, husbands and wives, society itself, in the end?
For many years, an attitude dominated in our consciousness, according to which we were prescribed: whom to love and hate, to whom to treat in what way, with whom to be friends, whom to study for, whom to bow before, etc. This attitude has deprived us of our “right” to privacy.
The presence of “two responsible” (a person and “someone else”) has formed a double standard in our attitude towards our own lives. On the one hand, we understand that success in life depends on ourselves; on the other hand, there is a personal mechanism of “assigning responsibility”, when a person, removing it from himself, seeks to blame others for his failures, miscalculations, mistakes: parents, others, society, circumstances, superiors, subordinates (“they didn’t give”, “they didn’t create conditions”, “they didn’t provide”, “they didn’t help”, “they didn’t love”).
The presence of an externally blaming position is the first sign of a person’s non-acceptance of responsibility for all the events of his own life. The belief that the world around us should and is obliged to give us something, if not according to the first, then according to the second requirement, greatly spoils our character, and subsequently our destiny.
Other mechanism: a person imitates those around him in everything, in clothes, in lifestyle, in habits, and at the same time he is deeply convinced of his individuality, uniqueness, independence, even originality. This mechanism of self-deception helps a person lead a very active life, achieve external success and satisfaction, but gradually leads to the loss of his true “I”.
However, most people find it difficult to admit to themselves that only they themselves influence their own lives, and to do this you just need to “look closely at yourself”, and quite self-critically.
The great psychologist, philosopher, K.G. Jung said: "... that the most unpleasant meeting in a person’s life is meeting with himself" Refusal to be an individual and accept responsibility for every action and decision, for every word is a rejection of oneself.
The first law of the philosophy of success is that the one who believes in his best qualities, strengths, who is always convinced that he has them, and who accepts himself as he is, wins. I am not a doll, not a puppet, not the embodiment of someone’s expectations, but the one nature created me to be, I correspond to myself every day.
Presenting the individual “history” of a person, is it possible to talk about general patterns of success along the path of life? Speaking about personal life, we are looking for it not in the sphere of free time, not in the sphere of leisure, not in the sphere of family, not in the sphere of achieving the highest professionalism in our field (although, in my opinion, this is a necessary but not sufficient condition).
We also cannot study our personal lives based on the number of books we have read and the information we have mastered. The success of personal life begins with asking questions such as: does a person live in accordance with his needs, does he put up with his dissatisfaction with life, does he have life prospects, how does he connect in his life what he wants, what he can and what he should?
In other words, from the point of view of success, the life path of each person has the same “measurement” criteria for all people: it worked out or didn’t work out, satisfied or dissatisfied, happy or unhappy, living an interesting life or not, etc.
But the methods of their implementation are purely individual. And from this point of view, the philosophy of success is how satisfied a person is with his life.
This is, first of all, a feeling - a complex feeling, not always unambiguous, but always generalized by a successful or unsuccessful, successful or unsuccessful life. When we experience disappointment in one thing, we always console ourselves in another, trying to bring us to some kind of balance. At the same time, we don’t notice that we are only calming ourselves down, driving the feeling of dissatisfaction deeper, instead of revealing the reasons and really changing ourselves.
Contentment is a feeling of being true to yourself, of the authenticity of your life.
Law two: the only criterion that can be interpreted that your life is successful is satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life. It has many shades depending on the types of people, but this is perhaps the only infallible criterion that can be logically explained.
Accordingly, you and I have a great opportunity to move from a spontaneous way of living life to one that we determine ourselves.
The essence of this definition lies in the choice of conditions and direction in life, in the choice of education and profession that best suits our characteristics, desires, abilities, and therefore best suits our life strategy for success.
There are several signs of building a life strategy:
1. Choosing the main direction in life, determining the main goals, stages of achievement and their subordination.
Often a person's intentions and the counter demands of life create contradictions between what a person wants and what life offers him.
2. Resolving life's contradictions, achieving goals and plans.
Methods for resolving contradictions, the desire to resolve them or get away from them, depend on the special qualities of the individual (spiritual qualities, such as responsibility and will), which are developed in the process of life and differ from abilities or character.
Thus, success depends not only on the area in which a person applies his strength, but also on how he manifests himself.
3. Human creativity, or rather, the creative creation of one’s own values, the combination of one’s needs and values.
The value of life, consisting of passion, incessant search, and satisfaction, is a product of an individual life strategy, which is determined by the person himself.
Observing modern reality, one can notice that now many are aimed at realizing the standards of ideas about a successful life, which involve material enrichment. While one of the manifestations of personality maturity is a person’s ability to determine the “threshold” of satiation, at which satisfied material needs are considered as an intermediate task that helps to realize more important goals.
Thus, the third law says - the ability to “switch” life’s aspirations from material to spiritual values helps a person live his life and he has a much greater chance of achieving success and satisfaction.
The famous scientist of the twentieth century A. Maslow, studying famous people as “samples” (these were his contemporaries, historical figures, scientists, writers, musicians, etc.) noted that only those who have a strong commitment to one’s own values, chosen activities and one’s goal.
Despite the fact that these people were not perfect and made many mistakes, they all had the following traits:
- acceptance of self, others and nature;
- spontaneity, simplicity, naturalness;
- focus on the task and not on oneself;
- more effective perception of reality and consistent relationships with it;
- some detachment and need for solitude;
- autonomy, independence of judgment from culture and environment;
- non-standard thinking and non-stereotypical assessments;
- experience of spiritual and mystical, not necessarily religious, experiences;
- a sense of empathy and belonging;
- deeper interpersonal relationships;
- democratic values;
- the habit of not mixing ends and means, good and evil;
- philosophical sense of humor;
- great creative resources;
- the ability to go beyond, for example, private cultural traditions and familiar environments.
Many psychological scientists divide time into three types of perspectives. Psychological Perspective– the ability to imagine your future and predict it. Personal perspective– the ability not only to see the future, but also readiness for the present, the ability to organize it.
Life perspective- this is a set of circumstances and living conditions that, other things being equal, create for an individual the maximum opportunity for optimal advancement in life. Life prospects are not always revealed to those who have a psychological and personal perspective, that is, are able to see the future and have potential, capabilities, and maturity.
A person, having a personal perspective in the absence of a developed life position, can quickly exhaust his capabilities and abilities, finding himself in critical periods of life, saturated with difficulties, contradictions, and stress. Often it opens up to someone who has created a system of optimal supports in the present (i.e. has many different possibilities), in the form of unique relationships, life position, and values.
Therefore, the fourth law of success says that every person should know that life always provides the prospect of becoming better, the opportunity to resolve one’s contradictions, to find the strength within oneself to change one’s life, to make it different.
Here I want to draw the readers’ attention to this particular formulation, since “the prospect of becoming better” (in other words, the prospect of changing) is an individual way of life. This is an individual trajectory of manifestation of vital activity and initiative, the choice of means and methods of self-expression.
Strategy is a kind of universal law, a way for a person to realize himself in various spheres of life. And since everyone builds their own life, strategy is an individual discovery for everyone.
Authoritative modern philosopher, psychologist, academician K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya said: “ As a result, every person has a life that he built himself. The fundamental difference is that one actually builds his life, while the other uses only what he has available».
To sum it up, we can say that personal success is impossible under someone else's orders. We are participants in a certain sense of a unique project - ourselves, as a source of life changes, events and actions, as a “treasury” of new and never-before-tried opportunities, strengths, abilities, aspirations.