Many people think about how to live well in reality. Of course, many other people are too busy with daily life itself to even think about their life as a whole. Only vaguely thinking about what to do to live well in reality may lead us nowhere, so here we provide some guidelines on what to think and do about the issue.
To live well in reality, the first thing to do is to accurately judge the present situation you are in. You must judge whether you are in a reality where you need to focus on survival or where you need to pursue meanings and values of life for self-actualization with basic needs for survival already secured.
When you are in a situation where you must focus on survival, you need to find ways to secure your survival before anything. However, when you still focus on survival by trying to accumulate materials even when your survival is already secured, you may live an unhappy life as a slave of materialism. On the other hand, when you are in a situation where you can pursue meanings and values with secured basic needs for survival, you need to focus on one of the three ways of self-actualization : pursuing values, pursuing meanings, and pursuing values based on meanings.
Secondly, you must keep in mind that we human beings must always coexist with other people in human relationships with harmony and order, whatever you do for survival or for self-actualization. Many individual and social problems occur when people cannot understand whether they are in the reality of survival or of self-actualization, and the fact that we all must live in harmony and order in human relationships.
For example, the phenomenon of generation gap may be explained with the concept of the reality of survival and that of self-actualization. The older generation may employ the standard of survival to deal with most issues whereas the younger generation may employ the standard of self-actualization. They may not understand each other and collide on each and every issue since they employ different standards to perceive and analyze the identical issue. When people understand this mechanism behind generational conflicts, it may become easier to negotiate and adjust positions and reach mutual agreement.
The same mechanism applies to the society as a whole. When the society needs to focus on survival of the members, it must put priority on survival in addressing all the issues. However, when the society has already secured the survival of all the members, it needs to put priority on self-actualiztion of the members. When the society as a whole still applies the standard of survival disregarding the present situation, categorizing people into the haves and the have-nots, and promoting materialism in every sector of the society, individuals in the society cannot adequately pursue self-actualization with meanings and values of life and may develop psychological problems.
When a society has leaders and rulers who promote the standard of survival when the society is actually in the reality where survival is secured, individuals may misunderstand their reality and still maintain the standard of survival. This phenomenon is observed in some affluent societies where people endlessly seek to accumulate materials and neglect sel-actualization with meanings and values of life.
Then, what can we do as individuals to live well in reality? We must accurately understand the reality we are in at present, and act properly for survival or for self-actualization based on harmony and order in human relationships. When you have jusdged that you have secured your survival, you must adjust your standard from the standard of survival to that of self-actualization. Living with the standard of survival when you are in the reality where you need to pursue self-actualization will cause problems and unhappiness in yourself and people around you.
