Beyond Basic Needs...

Some behavioral experts say that we operate out of one or two "basic" needs.  These needs go beyond the overarching human needs for survival, like food, clothing and shelter - we all need those.  According to one such expert, our one true "basic need" impacts the way we interact with other people, colors our perceptions of life and affects how we interpret the world around us and our circumstances. We act the way we do because it makes us feel good. It's a gut level response to everything and everyone, and though all four of the following basic needs apply to us personally, our inner being and resulting behavior is a result of our attempts to satisfy one or two of these needs:

1) The need to BELONG...to love and be loved, to cooperate, to be around other people,  for friendship
2) The need for POWER...to control, to influence, to win, to impact others in some way
3) The need to be FREE...to explore, to be ourselves, to choose, to express ourselves
4) The need for FUN...to laugh and play, to learn, to be entertained

This theory promulgated by one such expert, Dr. William Glasser, is centered on the lengths we will go to drive beyond these basic needs to achieve something he calls our "quality world". In his book The Quality School,  Glasser says our quality world contains "the very best or highest quality pictures or perceptions of the people, places, things or situations that we have learned feel especially good in the real world."

My quality world consists of people, places, things, and activities that are unique and special to me. Some are "wants", but most are what I would call "major needs":

Like the need to create beauty...

Or just appreciate it...

To be outdoors...

To Write...yes. And Make music in my heart...

And Enjoy food and wine...

To Give of my time in service...

Travel everywhere...all the time...

Or just rest...

To be around family and friends...

But most all, to Believe...

I find that most of what I do and appreciate in this life is centered around desire for my often elusive quality world. I see this as a yearning for some tiny replication of what Heaven might be like. Whether you "believe" or not, we are all born with this desire...God made us that way. Meanwhile, isn't life a great adventure?

Laurel