Why Do We Do What We Do?

Sometimes I do wonder why we are doing what we do. Why are we going to school? Knowledge…? Why are we learning knowledge? To get a good job in the future? Why are we looking for good job? To earn money to fund our needs? What exactly are our needs? Then I read one article by Anthony Robbins that almost answered all my doubts. It’s all about human needs…

“No matter who you are in the world, or what you do, there’s a common force that’s driving and shaping all our emotions and actions. It determines the quality of our lives, and ultimately, our destinies.

The universal force is our needs, human needs. Regardless of who we are - our backgrounds, our professions, our religion, race or creed – we are all driven, day after day, to fulfill primal needs that have been encoded (The Matrix Program?) into our nervous system over centuries. Although each of us is unique and special soul, we’re all wired (plug in the Matrix?) in very much the same way.

There are six human needs - fundamental drive within each one of us – that compel us forward is a quest to experience a life of meaning. There is no conscious effort necessary; our will to satisfy these primal needs is automatic.

1. Certainty: We all want stability about our basic necessities like food, shelter, and other material resources. When we cannot control our physical environment, we may seek certainty through state of mind like religious faith.

2. Variety: After we have fulfilled our basic needs, we will seek variety of life experiences through number of means like sport, traveling, music, movie, delicious food, and other entertainment.

3. Significance: We all need to feel special and important in some way to somebody. We all seek significance through obtaining recognition from others or from our own.

4. Connection: We all need to feel connected with someone or something like a person, an ideal, a value, a habit, or a sense of identity that we feel like being ourselves. (The feel of where or what we belongs?)

5. Growth: Everything in the universe is either growing or dying – there is no third alternative. We will not spiritually satisfied unless our capacities are expanding.

6. Contribution: Just as we cannot survive without others contributing in some way to our welfare, we cannot be spiritually fulfilled unless we are contributing to others as well.

Note: Any activity, action or emotion that fulfills at least 3 needs at a very high level will becomes in effect, an addiction.