"The drive towards self-improvement"

[Dirigible]

I'm certain there's a word for this. I know I've come across it before, but for the life of me I can't recall it. I'm not even sure if it was an old, Aristotelian word, or a neologism from modern psychology/philosophy. I've looked through the wikiarticles related to motivation and the like, and couldn't find it; I Googled it, but of course that just served me up eleven trillion websites that wanted to sell me self-help books.

It was a single word, and it meant, as the title of this thread says, 'the drive towards self-improvement' or 'self-actualisation' that people are supposed to possess.

Can anyone help me locate this word, before I chew out my own brainstem in frustration?

 

[DarkKestral]

I'm not sure, but it's possible that you weren't thinking of a single word, but the phrase "Der Wille zur Macht" (literally "the will to power") which is associated with Nietzsche, who was a modern philosopher, as far as things are considered. The German word macht has a few different meanings which would be considered distinct in English, which complicates things, as it also can mean the act of making and the act of becoming, in addition to the meanings that would be traditionally associated with power in English of influence and of control, but could be what you're looking for. Those same complications are sort of why it's so interesting and famous, though.

I could be wrong, but from what I know, it's a possibility.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Self-actualization? That's part of the heirarchy of needs.

Self-actualization — a concept Maslow attributed to Kurt Goldstein, one of his mentors — is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can. Working toward fulfilling our potential, toward becoming all that we are capable of becoming.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Would it be the Greek word arete? It's used often in Greek mythology, especially works like the Iliad. I thought that might be it, but after reading a little on that article it seems it's more an expression of virtue than a striving for excellence. But who knows, maybe it's what you were after.