Just Back from Jamaica

Just Back from Jamaica

While in Jamaica, I completed a very rough draft of a proposal for my book on Striving Styles. It was a very interesting experience. I was working away at my computer in the lounge, amongst people who were drinking, talking and progressively getting louder and louder. I was moved by the energy of the people and the music that blared from the very large speakers a room away. It reminded me of doing homework with the radio or television on when I was young. Amazing how the brain is able to focus attention when inspired by the subject matter.

I was writing about human needs and how we, as a society, are so divorced from them. Of course, we are able to meet our instinctual needs (food, water, shelter) and some of our emotional needs (family, relationships, social networks). Yet, we don’t really understand or attend to needs or know their importance to self-actualization.

Our needs are the source of intrinsic motivation. Unfortunately, we are more attuned to what we want instead of what we actually need; leading us to greater states of disconnection from our authentic self. Addictions, depression, anxiety disorders, are only a few of the symptoms of the inability to know what we need so that we can seek to satisfy the need and move along the path to self-actualization.

I needed to write my proposal, as I feel passionate about the book I am writing and the subject matter. I wanted to be in Jamaica. I did not feel the need to drink, socialize or lie by the pool. My mind would tell me, from time to time, that I should, however, staying present to my need allowed me to have an amazing holiday we just enough of everything to satisfy both my needs and my wants.

We are taught to want. We are taught not to pay attention to our needs. Yet paying attention to your predominant need, meeting it, and negotiating with others so that everyone has the opportunity to meet theirs as well provides deeply satisfying and enriching experiences.

Stay tuned for needs satisfaction at work tomorrow.