Part 1 in the series Building a Foundation for Success
In order to create a foundation for success ask yourself these questions.
- What do I want my life to look like? Who are my role models?
- What is my life like now? Are you merely existing, drifting through life? or do you have a plan?
Successful people operate within their values to achieve their goals. They develop core values that align with their goals by formulating a strategy for living life on their terms.
Most people who are unhappy or frustrated with the life they are living are trying to live the values that were projected on them as children. Those values might have served them well when they were younger but may now be in conflict with the values they have as adults.
People have an innate sense of values and personal preferences that tends to get buried under layers of social demands and expectations. Part of the human journey involves the gradual rediscovery of these innate and highly personal desires, which get unconsciously hidden away when they are seen to conflict with society demands. As a young adult you might want to follow your dreams of being an artist, musician, or world traveler, but instead you pursue the safer route laid out by your family or community.
There are other reasons why you might be out of touch with your values. Sometimes people don’t have the attention to wonder what their values are because they are too busy trying to survive. Values only become important as motivators when your basic needs are already met.
We need to untangle the confusion by going inside ourselves to find where we are on the path to self-actualization.
Lets look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow first published his hierarchy in 1943 in a paper titled, “A Theory of Human Motivation”. This hierarchy of needs has been used by sociologists, behavioral psychologists, as well as life coaches for decades. Abraham Maslow puts forward (in the form of a pyramid) that people are motivated by five basic categories of needs. Starting at the base and working up: physiological needs, safety, love, esteem, and at the apex is self-actualization.
Maslow proposed that higher needs in the hierarchy begin to emerge when people feel they have sufficiently satisfied the previous need. The first four needs are considered physiological or deficiency needs. Motivation decreases as needs are met. While the fifth level is considered where growth can begin. Motivation increases as needs are met.
Think about the questions posed at the beginning of this article, where do you see yourself in Maslow’s hierarchy?
The next article will delve deeper into the hierarchy.
