The Hierarchy Of Needs Part 5

There are five basic needs that have to be taken care of in life. These basic needs have to be
taken care of in order for anyone to get to a point where they are able to truly express themselves
in life and feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. The four lower level needs are basic daily
survival. Not taking care of these needs will force us to put more energy and time into them than is
necessary. Though the needs are broken down as seperate entities, they are interconnected. Each
higher need is connected to the needs below it, and not properly taking care of a lower need will
cause a need to back track. The five needs are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and
self-actualization.

The next level of needs that we will discuss is the need for esteem. This includes self-esteem,
confidence, achievement, respect of others, and respect by others. This area of need begins to move
into our own self-perceptions as well as the perceptions those around us have about us. Our accomplishments
and desire to do more and how it effects our emotional state and self-perception is also an important
area of this level of need. The first part of this level of need that you must take care of is self-esteem
because everything else grows from there.

Self-esteem is the opinion about you that you hold for yourself. It is having belief in yourself and love
for yourself in a healthy, happy way. Confidence is knowing what you know, knowing what you don't
know, and being ok with all of that. For example, I don't know how to speak russian. I am ok with that.
I don't lose a moments sleep just because I don't know how to speak russian. I do know how to write
though, and I am ok with that also. It is impossible to have confidence without self-esteem, but it is
possible to have high self-esteem and low confidence. Without a good perception of ourselves, we
cannot have high confidence. So it is important to start with developing high self-esteem for yourself.
Please see my article Steps For Attracting The Love Of A Lifetime Part 2 for a list of ways to help
develop better self-esteem.

Achievement and accomplishment are another are of this level of need. One must have something
that they are trying to accomplish and achieve. This is the juice of life. There is no greater way to
develop self-esteem and confidence than to have something that you are passionate about and
to drive toward that thing. To devote ones life to a worthy cause and feel a sense of being a part
of something great is essential to healthy emotional state. Find those things that make you feel
a sense of accomplishment when you lay your head down at night and devote yourself to doing
something each and every day to move closer toward the accomplishment of those things.

Developing respect for others also comes from a healthy self-perception of oneself. It is impossible
to respect and care for others if you do not already respect and care for yourself. You cannot give
something you do not have. Learning to respect others is nothing more than treating them as though
they are as important to you as you are to you, and if you don't believe you are important, you can't
possibly believe that others are. It is also important to respect others if we wish to gain respect in return.
Obviously, people are not going to treat you nicely if you don't first treat them that way. The two go hand
in hand.

Our own opinion about ourselves is one of the most important things you can work on in your life. This
directly effects everything we do, or don't do. It effects everything we accomplish and achieve, or don't
accomplish and achieve. Our own opinion of ourselves, when it is healthy, will get us through the toughest
of times. Our success in anything from love to money is directly related to our own self-perception. We must
take the time to learn to love and like ourselves. After all, we are our closest friend and we have to spend
24 hours a day 365 days a year with ourselves.

In the part of this series we will discuss the concept of self actualization. This is at the top of the level of needs.
Only after the other areas have been taken care of can this area be approached. Premature approach to this area
can cause drastic problems in our lives. To much focus will be taken away from actually accomplishing self
actualization if the other levels of need are not taken care of properly. Be sure that you have a stable foundation,
then move on to self actualization.