How to Analyze if Your Basic Needs are Being Met

Comfort to me is having my basic needs met. When this is the case, it is easier for me to pursue my goals and find contentment.

What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?

Increasing comfort comes in many forms. The biggest thing for me is making sure I have all my bills paid, a nice home, a relatively peaceful home, lots of pets and a loving partner. I can be quite content when all of these things are in order. I can then focus my energy on my work, my writing, and my personal fitness, which gives me more strength and success.

Scientific Basis for this Opinion

Maslov’s hierarchy of needs echoes this philosophy. To reach what Maslov called “self-actualization”, we must have our physiological needs met first (air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction). Once those needs are taken care of, “Safety Needs” become more important (personal security, employment, resources, health, and property). “Love and Belonging” needs are next on the pyramid and can include (friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection and a general sense of non-isolation. After this, according to Maslov, we look to feel “Esteem” (respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength and freedom. Only then, can we become the most that one can be.

If you look around at people that seem “happy” chances are they have all these needs either met or close to it fairly regularly. When individuals do not have these needs met, they tend to develop issues and can even resort to criminality to meet these needs. The same goes for individuals, all of these needs met equals better focus, concentration and greater self-actualization.

The Takeaway

The key takeaway here is that if you want to build a better world, all people need to have these basic needs met. If you want to get rid of crime, if you want to end homelessness, if you want to end poverty, etc., human beings must have these things. Unfortunately, capitalism runs anti-thema to this concept in many ways. Adam Smith, the famed author of “The Wealth of Nations” had this to say on the matter:

What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.
Adam Smith

So the key to advancing society is helping individuals to meet these needs better. How can we do that effectively? See my article from yesterday on “The Venus Project: Future by Design”, for my further thoughts on the matter.

Video Summary

Call to Action!

What do you use to increase comfort in daily life? Let me know what you think of the video, first video I have published on here like this, thanks! I also made a pin embed!