Basic Human Needs: Here's What You Need to Know

Today, I’d like to encourage you to make sure your basic humans needs are fulfilled.

By that I mean the physiological (water, food, sleep etc.) and safety needs in Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Depending on where you are in your life, this prompt might not seem to apply to you at all.

For instance, you may be in a place in your life where you have so much more money than you need. If you can afford a Lamborghini, you can obviously meet your basic needs. Right?

Here’s why I think that…

Even the most successful often have unmet basic human needs.

Take, for instance, the totally sleep-deprived CEO of a large company. If someone has not had a good night’s sleep in months, would you really say that all their basic needs are being met?

Author and businesswoman Arianna Huffington apparently wouldn’t. Here's an excerpt from her open letter to Elon Musk:

"Working 120-hour weeks doesn’t leverage your unique qualities, it wastes them. You can’t simply power through – that’s just not how our bodies and our brains work. Nobody knows better than you that we can’t get to Mars by ignoring the laws of physics. Nor can we get where we want to go by ignoring scientific laws in our daily lives.

[...]

To cite just one study, after 17-19 hours without sleep, we begin to experience levels of cognitive impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level of .05 percent, just under the threshold for being legally drunk."

As Medium's largest publication The Mission pointed out when it republished the (subtly titled) article Sleep Deprivation Is Killing You and Your Career by Dr. Travis Bradberry,

“more than half of Americans get less than the necessary 7 hours of sleep each night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. For go-getters, it’s even worse. A recent survey of Inc. 500 CEOs found that half of them are sleeping less than 6 hours a night.”

If you don't get enough sleep, you might want to check out my interview with good friend Sondra Kornblatt from Restful Insomnia:

So, what if you’re in a place where getting enough sleep is the least of your worries right now? Let’s look at…

It’s hard to think about your passion when you are worried about how to put food on the table or where you will sleep next week.

Thus, if it’s challenging for you to pay your bills, try to address that issue first.

As I wrote in my article about how to experience more work and life fulfillment, it can be challenging

“to really explore what lights you up if you are concerned about paying the bills. Focusing on bringing in money first gives you access to a range of resources you might otherwise not have, such as courses that allow you to explore your passion or other forms of support, such as coaching.

While there are ways to explore your passion for free or cheap (such as by getting books on them from a public library, borrowing musical instruments from friends, watching YouTube video topics that interest you), having more money gives you more options.”

Grab a pen and paper. 📝Then, take a moment to go through the following process.

(If you want to get the most out of this or if you're afraid of getting stuck, get the "Taking Action Worksheets" and begin by filling those out.)

• Which of your physiological needs are currently being fulfilled? Which ones aren’t?
  This category includes things such as food, water, sleep, shelter etc. For instance, while you might drink enough during the day, maybe you get very little sleep.
  
  
• Which of your safety needs are currently being fulfilled? Which ones aren’t?
  This categories includes financial security, job security, personal security, as well as health and well-being. For instance, while you might be healthy, perhaps you are concerned about paying the bills. Or maybe you have more than enough money but are starting to get concerned about the impact that stress has on your health.
  
  
• Based on your answers, pick one area to focus on.
  For instance, you might choose to get more sleep or take action to improve your financial situation.
  
  
• Pick one small action you can take to improve that area.
  If you want to get more sleep, one idea could be to install a blue light filter on all your devices (since experts point out that blue light can negatively impact sleep). Or if you want to improve your financial situation, a first step could be to remove your credit cards from your wallet so you’ll have to pay cash (since studies show that people spend more money if they use credit cards).

If you want to live a great life and be as effective and productive as possible, make sure your basic needs are being met to the best of your abilities.

It’s much easier to do things from a resourced state.