The Need Hierarchy
need n. lack of something required or desirable. want v. to wish for.
- 47. Every choice has a consequence. There is a gap between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and success is how we use that space.
- 48. Perception. Everyone perceives things differently - not correctly, or incorrectly - just differently. 'Human Relations' is the development of awareness about others as individuals.
- 49. Closure. Our brain can only process about 1/10,000th of what we see; a criteria is developed to select what is useful to us [selective perception]. This process is based on our growth and survival needs. Because we do not react equally to all information, we are left with gaps in our perception. We use a process called 'closure' to fill in the gaps with information we already have. Sometimes this 'closure' is made too quickly, without enough information. This narrow perception is called 'stereotyping'. However, this is not always bad because it often allows us to categorize large volumes of information efficiently.
- 50. 'Just do it' doesn't work. We need to understand why people do things, or what motivates them. It should be understood that getting someone to do something, and having a person want to do something, are two completely different endeavors. It can be opportunity, responsibility, or fear that appears to motivate someone, but there is a more basic force at work.
- 51. Motivation comes when a person wants to do something because it satisfies that person's own unique needs.
52. Needs. To better understand motivational structure we can use Abraham Maslow's Need Hierarchy. The structure contains 5 separate graduating Need levels:
- Basic Needs - Survival [food, water, air, and so on].
- Safety Needs - After survival needs are met, we turn to meeting our need for health, steady job, and other basics to depend on.
- Belonging Needs - The first set of needs dealing with the psychological well-being of the individual. Love, affection, and a sense of belonging are sought from groups such as the family, co-workers, and friends.
- Esteem Needs - Prestige, recognition, and respect. The need to feel worthwhile and significant intensifies.
- Self-actualization Needs - the final and highest level. This can only be achieved after all the other physical [1,2] and psychological [3,4] needs have been basically satisfied. It is reaching one's full potential.
- 53. Maslow felt that unfulfilled needs were the motivating needs.
- 54. More Will Durant. 'But then one can be too cautious, and by turning away from the beckoning of great deeds, remain forever small. Make sure that modest victories shall not content you; on the morning after your triumph, having feasted for a day, look about you for the next and larger task. Face danger, and seek responsibility, it is true that they may defeat you, may even destroy you; but the date of the one death which you must die is too slight a chronological detail to disturb philosophy. If they do not kill you they will strengthen you, and lift you nearer to greatness and your goal. Make or break.'
- 55. It cuts both ways. You can't have life in slices, you have to take the whole pie, and there is the potential for adversity or success in every bite. This can be either a burden or a challenge.
- 56. Our greatest assets are also our greatest liabilities. This is true for everyone and everything. A good example of this is free will; it is our greatest asset, but yet it remains our greatest liability. It leads to the ultimate burden of individual responsibility and the enormous consequence of every decision.
