actualization
Making potential concrete
Actualization is the process of making something real or bringing it into being.
The term appears most often in psychology, where self-actualization refers to fulfilling one's potential and becoming the best version of oneself—a concept popularized by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Outside psychology, actualization describes any transformation from possibility to reality: The actualization of her business plan took three years of effort.
The verb actualize means to make actual or real.
Progress toward maturity
- maturationProcess of becoming complete
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- progressionSequential forward movement
- unfoldingGradually becoming apparent
emergence · transformation · blossoming · ripening · cultivation · nurturing · expansion · advancement
Grasping what's true
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- awarenessState of perceiving reality
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- recognitionPerceiving something as known
comprehension · perception · discernment · epiphany · discovery · cognition · apprehension · grasp
Achieving personal potential
- achievementAccomplished goal or deed
- accomplishmentSuccessful completion of aim
- attainmentSuccessful reaching of goal
- completionAct of finishing
culmination · fruition · consummation · satisfaction · contentment · success · peak experience · human potential
Surpassing usual limits
- enlightenmentProfound spiritual awakening
- awakeningReturn to consciousness
- illuminationProvision of light
- onenessState of being unified
consciousness · unity · harmony · presence · sacred · divine · bliss · serenity
Present but inactive
- dormantInactive but capable
- capabilityPower to accomplish tasks
- capacityMaximum amount containable
- talentInborn aptitude
promise · possibility · opportunity · innate · predisposition · faculty · endowment · aptitude
development
Progress toward maturity
- maturationProcess of becoming complete
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- progressionSequential forward movement
unfolding · emergence · transformation · blossoming · ripening · cultivation · nurturing · expansion · advancement · enrichment
realization
Grasping what's true
- insightDeep perceptive understanding
- awarenessState of perceiving reality
- understandingMental comprehension of something
recognition · comprehension · perception · discernment · epiphany · discovery · cognition · apprehension · grasp · knowing
self-realization
Achieving personal potential
- achievementAccomplished goal or deed
- accomplishmentSuccessful completion of aim
- attainmentSuccessful reaching of goal
completion · culmination · fruition · consummation · satisfaction · contentment · success · peak experience · human potential · becoming
transcendence
Surpassing usual limits
- enlightenmentProfound spiritual awakening
- awakeningReturn to consciousness
- illuminationProvision of light
oneness · consciousness · unity · harmony · presence · sacred · divine · bliss · serenity · nirvana
latent
Present but inactive
- dormantInactive but capable
- capabilityPower to accomplish tasks
- capacityMaximum amount containable
talent · promise · possibility · opportunity · innate · predisposition · faculty · endowment · aptitude · unrealized
- ambitionaspire, ambition, aspiration, goal, strive
- fulfillmentfulfillment, realization, self-realization, accomplishment, achievement
- manifestationsapparition, appearance, embodiment, incarnation, materialization
- Deleuze-Guattarirhizome, assemblage, deterritorialization, becoming, immanence
- teleologytelos, purpose, end, ends, goal
- discoveryfind, finding, discovery, discover, finding out
actualizationpotentiality
Capacity to develop
nonfulfillment · unrealized potential · latency · dormancy · incompletion
actualizationabstraction
Distilling to essential qualities
idealization · conceptualization · hypotheticality · nonexistence · unreality
actualizationfailure
Lack of success
defeat · frustration · nonsuccess · thwarting · fizzle