Every time there is something with regards
to great people who ever lived, I can't help but think what was so different in
these people...or for that matter what was the similarity that they had with
billion of others who exist or existed. Gandhi, Buddha, Martin Luther King,
Mandela, Mother Teresa... or even Hitler or Napoleon, how could they go all the
way while others just thought and contemplated, unsure and clueless.
What made them so extraordinary and exemplary? How were they same or different
from others when they were just people?
What I feel hence is based on two things -
Maslow and conviction. I believe in Maslow. The theory is a very
basic, just another management theory that talks about the needs of human being,
and their hierarchy. Maslow argued that unless a need of lower hierarchy is met, one can not go upwards. My experience says it is true. Of course if
you were to base your life parallel to this theory, you need to believe in
it for one...and if you do, how would you identify where you stand in
this hierarchy. How do you identify you have attained one stage, when do you
move up further?
The answer here I feel is conviction. This
can not possibly be pointed out or put in words, but one gets a conviction when
they feel strongly about something. You can't imbibe, induce, develop or
work towards it in any way. You know it for a fact that its time. And
then you will not need even a cue or a push to another level.
Conviction is what gives you strength to do unimaginable- from love to suicide-
everything. But what you may need to develop to act on your conviction is
decision. Probably what differentiates great from mediocre is ability to make a
decision. Well of course decisions are always hard, and are crossroads of life
that have capacity to channel it in few very different ways.
Decisions are difficult because of the fear
of consequences and the weight of options and the onus of choosing. What great
people did, in hindsight, is that they made a decision and acted on them
anyway. Think hard and think through but don't over think. Ask yourself, why do
we toggle between what we decide? how do the facts known to us change when we
get scared and tempted to change the decision we made a day before? So decide
and accept it as sacrosanct and act. It doesn't mean you can't review and tweak
and improvise as you move ahead in that direction, but means that you have
chosen that direction. Because the fact of the day is that no matter what you
choose to do, there is no predefined fate attached to either choice. It will
shape up with a variable- which is you. And you may imagine but will never know
how things would have been different had you chosen otherwise. So probably we
should not deem it more tricky than nature already made it. Take the road less
travelled or travel the busy one differently. START.EITHER.WAY.
Jumping back to Maslow, the needs
travel from outside to the core of humans- figuratively speaking. From body to
heart to mind to soul.
Physiological Need: Measuring life in
meals they have
What it means:Food, House, Air, Water,
Sleep, Sex
What they need to move up: Water,
sanitation, reproduction, health
Nutshell- what your body needs. These needs
are almost a universal set of animal's needs. That's what they live and die
for. Their life is constant search for next meal, burrow to sleep, sex for
reproduction. So these are basic checks, like a preemployment check for job with
greater self.
Surprisingly 80% of the world is in this
stage, or trying to be here (At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a
day) So for them the needs for love and care or proving oneself is in fact
bullshit.
Safety: Measuring life in peaceful
nights
What it means:Protection, Law, Stability,
Limits
What
they need to move up: Efficient governance, Judiciary, Perception of fairness
and non partiality
This is a level that few intelligent species
of animal try to move to. They try to be organized, marking own boundaries,
making a pact-respecting limits and prosecuting when breached. Humans prefer
safety for the first strand of peace that they yearn once physiological needs
are met. They want to ensure there is a system wherein no one takes food they
earn or trespasses their home's privacy. This need can be seen blending in from
old times to now. It has tweaked to let in more people-since there is room for
more-than what survival of the fittest allows.
Social: Measuring life in people who you
love and care
What it means:Family, Relationship,
Affection, Work colleagues
What they need to
move up: Support from family, stability from relationship and food for
intellect
This is where we mess up, or start to...
This level means you need family and love and warmth and all that...This level
has highest number of people living in indecision or escapism. That happens
because first two levels are not open to interpretation while starting this
level, the great human mind and intelligence, or ignorance comes to play.
Esteem: Measuring life in trophies and
accolades
What it means: Achievement, responsibility,
status, reputation
What they need to move up: They need a plan
that worked, society that acknowledges the achievement and most of all, a mind
agreeing that you did what you strived for
This is trickier than social needs. Not only
is this open to interpretation, it has much higher dependence on external
factors. This is also the most common link amiss from majority of people. Most
settle at stage three, others strive for this stage, few of course make it. This
is hard because it involves highest concentration of decision making.
If Maslow were alive, I would have liked to
argue about overlapof stage 3 and 4, or swap or something- in light of new
generation. Maybe he would have agreed or maybe he would have argued that its a
hard lock in.
Self Actualization: Not measuring life
anymore
What is means: Self sufficiency,
Meaningfulness
What they need to move up: They need to know
that they don't need to move up or down or anywhere
This is it fellas. You made it. You have
moved from negative indifference to positive indifference. You do things for
meaning and attainment of the superior being in us-soul. The ways and methods
may be many but eventuality is same. People may derive spirituality from welfare
or any reason that they get peace with. I am not sure I am qualified to write
much here as I don't even have thoughts how it would feel like to be
there.
I know that this theory fits. Fits with
great people's lives, fits with common people. Fits with the world today and as
it was eons ago. So much so..so far, it fits me.
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