Self-Actualizing in China

This is one of the coolest videos I’ve seen in awhile. This guy, Jake Gaba, spent 100 days dancing across China! He was there studying Mandarin on a Dartmouth College Study Abroad program and his very unique brand of cataloguing his travels was to dance in all the cities that he found himself in –dancing to the Bruno Mars song Treasure— and he video-logged it.

I LOVE this video! I have watched it several times because it just makes me feel good. I started to wonder what it was about the video that kept drawing me back. How do I feel about this video? Well, first of all, LOVE the shorts! I could come back and watch over and over just to see those shorts! In addition to that though, I find that I just admire this kid so much. What he has done here, to me, is sheer genius. But there’s more.

Aside from the unique idea and the spectacular video-editing, I’m in awe of this kid’s guts. He’s like a one-man flash mob! To just break out dancing wherever he happens to be, with no care as to what people will think, not just once but again and again a hundred times over, well, that’s some serious hutzpah!

I envy his freedom — freedom to simply be himself without worrying about how he’s going to be perceived. He just DOES what he does. THAT’s freedom.

I’ve always been a girl obsessed with freedom. Freedom and space are my two big deal-breakers. Freedom is why I’m self-employed, freedom is why I’m single. But this kid, he has a different kind of freedom. I don’t think I’m that self-actualized — yet. So I guess that’s just one more thing to add to my To Do List…

I started thinking about self-actualization and what it really means. One definition says “self-actualized people have realistic perceptions of themselves, others and the world around them.” I’m not there yet. I still view myself through my ultra-critical lens and my self-conscious filter.

Self-actualized people are spontaneous in internal thoughts and outward behavior. I’m definitely spontaneous but only to the point that my filter will allow.

And the self-actualized person is free from superficial concerns. I’m not there yet. According to Abraham Maslow, self-actualization merely involves achieving one’s potential. However, he believes that less than 2% of the population actually achieve self-actualization.

Whew! I can stop beating myself up now. 🙂

Instead, I’m going to go watch this guy dance his way across China again…