Motivation - Fulfilling Human’s Needs

Everything we do is to satisfy our basic needs and desire at any particular moment. These basic needs excite our behaviour. An unsatisfied need can be our motivator since it causes a behaviour; and that behaviour is, we want to do something to satisfy our desire.

To motivate anyone, we have to know and understand some of the commonly shared human needs. There are five shared human needs; physical, security, belonging, ego and achievement.

Physical needs are men’s basic animal needs. They include the crave for food, water, shelter, sex, basic material comforts, rest, relaxation, recreation, exercise and sleep. Individuals suffering from physical need are quite easy to spot. Often they move slowly, tend to grumble and absent from work. A jogging or exercise program could be proposed.

Security needs include financial, physical (environment) and emotional security – to be protected from bodily harm, to have job security and free from worry. Modern corporations draw up strategies and guidelines for benefits that aimed towards satisfying these employees’ needs.

The need to belong is the next level of human needs. People want to be accepted by others, to be part of the group, to be considered a worthwhile individual in the society. We must recognize that they want to be part of the herd and thus we should avail him the opportunity to have access to as many social and group contacts.

The fourth tier of needs is the ego needs. Ego need is often called the status needs or the need to be recognized. A person with ego needs like to display awards, trophies, he does not like to conform, flashy dreamer, fancy wearing expensive accessories, frequent expensive restaurant, playing golf, driving expensive cars and lots more.

With ego needs having been actualized, a person then advances up the final step to fulfil his last level of desire and that is the “achievement needs”. Acievement needs refers to a person’s self-fulfillment desires or the self-actualisation feelings – the drive to be the best, to be the champion, to win, to develop the fullest potential, to reach the highest peak.

“I thank God for my handicaps for without them I could not have succeeded” Helen Keller.