Maslow’s Misunderstood Genius
There is a simple three step trick to re-focus your priorities and give yourself a renewed sense of direction. It was Abraham Maslow’s misunderstood genius that gave us this trick. In the endless pursuit of quelling personal demons, most psychological theories have captured my interest only for a few moments. One has stood the test of time; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You can use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to evaluate where your most basic needs are not being met and learn how to fix it right now. Meet your basic needs, feel awesome, succeed at life. Simple, right?
Setting goals is useless if you’ve got nowhere to go. Traditional methods for motivation and success are not tailored for you because they don’t give you a cardinal direction to aim for. Without direction you may feel better for a short time but your situation hasn’t actually changed.
Have you ever wondered why you can’t stop eating even though you’re on the most well-intentioned diet? It’s because those cravings are subconscious physiological needs that are not being met, so you eat. Your other needs act out in the same way. This process is mostly subconscious and crazy hard to control if you don’t realize its going on.
The reason I believe Maslow was a misunderstood genius is because not only has his prized theory withstood the test of time, but is has also transcended it. His theory has been reinforced as technology brings quick drug like fixes to us throughout our day. Your phone serves up a quick fix to loneliness, boredom, and security in an instant. That’s why it’s so addictive.
In the 1950s psychologists James Olds and Peter Milner wired electrodes into the pleasure centers of the brains of rats. When the rat pressed the lever, it got a quick jolt of pleasure. The rats caught on quickly and completely forgot about everything else in their little rat lives. The rats would forego food, warmth, and the company of other rats in order to get juiced up constantly. The rats did not fair well during this study, but they did give a us a fascinating premonition of substance addiction and obsessive-compulsive behavior.
Our subconscious is using this same trick every moment of our lives, except instead of a lever, we have an electronic device in our pocket or a candy bar. These quick fixes have evolved thousands of times faster than our actual primal needs. Candy bars are specifically designed to be perfectly satiating blood sugar rocket launchers. Social media wraps the dopamine inducing quick fix of a lottery ticket, with a sense of belong to larger group, in one convenient drug den location. With access to dopamine inducing hope that news of something life changing, tailored just for us, is just around the corner on a small electronic device within our pocket creates the perfect storm of addictive behavior.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is simple enough. It is usually represented by a pyramid in which human needs are built from the ground up from the most basic to the most complex. Physiology, Security, Belonging, Self-Esteem, and Self-Actualization. Loosely interpreted, you need to meet the most basic needs before you have any interest those that are more complex. You start at the bottom and work your way up. You need to meet them in order. Kind of…
The “kind of” part is pretty important. Most author’s references to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs tend to leave out the fact that Maslow was adamant about his hierarchical model not being rigid. He specifically stated that people can and will meet their specific needs out of order. The hierarchy part was used by Maslow to show the prevailing tendency for people to meet their needs in an order but not always.
Step 1 — On a scale of 1 to 10, quantify the level of how your current needs are being met.
Step 2 — Figure out the one thing, at each level, you could do to increase the rating.
Step 3 — Simply put your things in order of greatest impact to smallest. If 2 things have the same impact then put the thing that falls lower on the pyramid first.
That’s it. Now you have a simple and clear plan of action to get back on track.
This simple system works by helping you to root out some of your most deeply seeded needs. Some of your deepest needs may be physical, mental, or unconscious.
Junkies tend to subconsciously follow Maslow’s hierarchy without any knowledge of it. They crave the physical need of drugs. That need is driven by pain. Drug users use drugs to numb the pain that their unmet needs cause.
The problem with drugs, alcohol, and other addictive behaviors is that they treat the need but they don’t cure it. Most 12 step programs start with peeling back the onion and finding those unmet needs. The hardest steps in 12 step programs are finding pain areas and addressing the underlying causes.
We subconsciously follow Maslow’s hierarchy all day without even recognizing it. You always start your day by addressing your physiological needs and slowly working up the pyramid till you collapse at the end of the day.
When you consciously recognize your needs, it not only gives you more control, it also allows you to meet your needs more qualitatively.
