I was listening to a cool short podcast by Tony Robbins this morning. I wanted to document my notes here to not forget it. Here’s the original podcast:

Why We Do What We Do | Tony Robbins, 9/16/16, Monterey, CA 

THE 6 HUMAN NEEDS: 

1. CERTAINTY  – the need to avoid pain and death. people who have a strong emphasis on this need are typically control freaks. knowing what will happen produces comfort.
2. UNCERTAINTY – the need for variety and novelty
3. SIGNIFICANCE – the need to feel important, unique, and special
4. CONNECTION & LOVE – most people desire love, but settle for a connection. connection may be a good OR bad thing (when someone has a gun to your head, they’re very connected to you), so this is referring to person-to-person connection
5. GROWTH – a spiritual need: growth=life=happiness, stagnation or decline=death=not happy
6. CONTRIBUTION – a spiritual need: the need to share joy with others. you can only feel so much yourself

We all have these 6 needs, but we attribute different values to each. If an action, belief, or thought fulfills the needs of 3 of these 6, then whatever it is will become an addition.

The purpose of a goal is who we become as we attain the goal – not necessarily to actually attain the goal itself.

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What I thought was really cool was that Tony had picked up all of these things empirically through his years of counseling and coaching people all around the world. It’s an interesting thing to think about, that there are basic needs that everyone has. These are obviously at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy pyramid, but I think these are important to know regardless.

As I was listening to Tony, I was thinking about what my top 2 needs are of these 6. I went down the list. Certainty? If people know me well, they know I thrive on things NOT being certain in my life, not that I don’t appreciate it – I’m actually pretty disciplined and like to control things to create certainty as much as I can, but if if shit hit the fan, I usually stay calm. So, this is not high on the list for me. Uncertainty, then? Perhaps – I do feel a strong value to the uncertainty that is life. I believe strongly that uncertainty is where the great things truly happen, when people have to forge their way through whatever it is. I do place a high value on uncertain things in my life, odd as that sounds. Connection & Love – absolutely high up on my list. I make time in my life to connect with people, and where necessary, cultivate it further into love. But as Tony says, for some it’s hard to get to love due to personal circumstances, and I tend to fall into that category as well. I have been criticized for being closed off or protective of myself. And, I am for sure – it’s an area I’m working on. Growth – I think as odd as it sounds, I recognize this need and do think it’s very important, but it is not as important to me as uncertainty and connection/love. That said, growth has been a mainstay in my personal life and career, so I’m not too concerned here. Finally, contribution – I think this one is actually HUGE for me, possibly at the top of the list. I derive true joy from helping those in real need, and I love sharing my own joy with the people around me – especially those who were by my side when times were tough. The people who know me well know that I like to do this. Besides, what good is joy if you cannot share it with anyone? Isn’t that what things and experiences are for?

Anyway, I thought this was a cool podcast. Check it out!