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Did you ever find yourself thinking
of buying a new car but could not afford it? Or have you ever
thought of treating your family on a trip, but could not, because you
are under budget? Well you are not alone. Majority of the people
in the world are in this situation. Would you like to change your situation?
If you do, You have taken the
first step in changing your life. But before you can do this, you
should understand your hierarchy of needs.
MASLOW'S
HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Understanding your hierarchy of
needs and your attitude towards these needs may help you achieve what
you want in life.
Majority of the people in the
world operate on the first three levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs. This is because, we were tought by our parents or
teachers the way they know how to do it. And
that is "go to college", "find a stable job",
"do your best at work to stay employed", "take care of
your family", "save or spend your money wisely". But if
you understand more about your needs and wants, you would be able to
do what really matters to you. The category of needs starts off
with the most basic needs and it goes up to your sense of actualization or
satisfaction. The more successful a person becomes the higher
his needs are and the most basic needs are mostly irrelevant because
it is easily attainable or more affordable to that person. The person may not seek it
because it is easily purchased or easily attained. Once the level of
need is satisfied, we as humans tend to want more in life, thus seeking
the next level of need. There are five levels in the hierarchy
and they are:
- PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
- These are very BASIC NEEDS but very important needs in
life. These needs are: Food, Water, Air, Shelter, and
others. Without these needs life would be very difficult and will
seize to exist. These needs are needed in a daily basis.
- SECURITY AND SAFETY
- people would
like to have security, and safety in their lives to make sure that
the supply of basic needs will always be supplied. These
group of needs are job security, security of resources (basic
needs and other needs), health insurance, and safety of family.
- LOVE AND BELONGING
- The first two categories are more of the material needs.
Once all material needs are satisfied, most people will seek for
better relationships. These are friendships, family,
intimacy. People would like to have a sense of belonging and
acceptance within their family and relationships.
- ESTEEM
- When
all material things and sense of belonging are satisfied most
people seek to build their self esteem. They look for
recognition in what they are doing to give them a sense of achievement to fulfill
their need of respect from others. These are recognition,
promotion from work, acknowledgement of their accomplishments in
life. Without this, people tend to get depressed in life and
feel that they are incomplete or feel that something is missing in
their life.
-
Self
Actualization - In most cases, people stop
or get stuck with the first two levels of needs because they need to
meet their
Physiological Needs and Security and Safety Needs. This is
because people tend to live on a day to day basis. In some
cases it is not because they want to, but because their resources or
capability are limited. SELF ACTUALIZATION means you are
satisfied with what you have that you look at the world in a new
perspective. After fulfilling your material needs, you start to
think of what things you can do to make a difference in the world
because you are pretty satisfied with what you currently have.
Once self actualization kicks in, you start thinking of philanthropic activities, and thinking of helping other people.
All through out
your lifetime you may swing between these five categories. But
knowing where you are and where you want to be in life, makes a big
difference in what you need to do in order to get where you want to
be. Remember
that the more successful a person is in his career, the higher he is
in the PYRAMID of the Hierarchy of Needs and Wants.
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