The "Core" desire we want in life

Many of us are often wondering with the question "what do i want in life?" Hint: its one "core" need.

We have many "preset" goals in our mind. For many of them, we work like donkeys in order to achieve them. But what are they? Is there any priority? I'll highlight some basic needs here.

Abraham Maslow, a well known Psychologist outlined the elements of Human needs in his theory. Within every human there exists a hierarchy of needs:

Basic Physiological Needs: These needs are most basic in the hierarchy and correspond to the primary needs. Hunger, thirst, shelter, sleep, sex are some examples of these needs.

Safety/Security Needs: These needs provide security and protection from physical and emotional harm. For example job security, stability of income, pension plans etc

Affiliation/Belonging Needs: These needs refer to affection, sense of belongingness, acceptance and friendship. The areas covered are friends, family, relationships, work groups

Esteem Needs: These include factors such as self-respect, autonomy-status, reputation, achievement, recognition and attention.

Self Actualization (or Self-Realization Needs): It is the highest level of need in the hierarchy. it refers to the drive to become what one is capable of becoming. These needs include growth, self-fulfillment and achievement of goals.

What does it imply?

• People's behavior is based on their needs
• Satisfaction of such needs influence their behavior
• People's needs are in hierarchical order, starting from basic needs to other higher level needs
• A satisfied need can no longer motivate a person
• Only next higher level need can motivate him
• A person moves to the next higher level of hierarchy only when the lower needs are satisfied

The Top most need i.e. Self actualization or Self-Realization is the thing a guy craves all of his life. That is the ultimate goal of his life even if he realize it or not. All of this can be explained like a ladder where you have to go through the initial steps to reach the topmost.

As you go higher, the needs become harder to achieve but more satisfying and worth all the hassle. These are the basic needs of every human being. However, only a few are able to reach to the top. Why? Because not any Tom, Dick or Harry can conquer the apex. (because they don't have the required knowledge i.e. what-to-do, when-to-do- and how-to-do)

You know, every guy dreams about a heroic image of himself. Where do these dreams come from? Right! through an entity called self-realization!