The 7 Fundamental Human Needs

“Satisfied needs do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that motivates.” Stephen Covey

What motivates people to do what they do?
How do people find meaning in life?
How do great leaders lead people so that people passionately follow them?
What are our social determinants of health?

Have you ever thought about what motivates people to do what they do? Is it obtaining money, power, and sex as some people think? The answer is deeper than that. Keen observation, research, and centuries of history show us that we are motivated by a desire to meet certain fundamental human needs. That is, humans are motivated to do things by a desire to meet their intrinsic needs. These needs are not “wants” but “needs” that we all have by just being human–they are ontological (stemming from the condition of being human).

Evolutionary Role of the Fundamental Human Needs

We are endowed with 7 categories of needs (see below) that are called fundamental human needs. Every human being, in every culture, over every generation, on every continent has these 7 categories of needs. However, the expression of these needs in different people may take on different phenotypes and so look different. The way they are satisfied also differs from person to person and across cultures and ages. These inborn needs have been responsible for our individual and group survival as a species and continue to play a significant role in the evolution of human society. Just like hunger reminds us to eat physical food so that we can nourish our bodies and survive, these needs are inner longings of every human soul that push us to contribute to our own upkeep and that of our group because as a species, we do better as individuals when our entire group does well. Think of the time when we lived in small village communities. The strength of the individual was intertwined with the strength of the community. Strong individuals made strong communities but strong communities also enhanced individual strength. Though the world is a different place today, fundamental human needs still serve the same role. They drive us to pursue individual and community survival and growth as a species because our own individual survival depends on the survival of others as well.

Why should you bother to know about the 7 Fundamental Human Needs?

I think that fundamental human needs are the keys to success in life. Understanding them empowers you to become the greatest person that you can be. They are also the only way to successfully influence people. If you want to influence or empower any person or group, there is no better place than to understand and meet their fundamental human needs. Meet their fundamental needs, and people will follow you anywhere you take them. The gateway to influence is meeting human needs. Understanding and satisfying your own fundamental human needs is how you develop a sense of meaning in your life. With that comes the tremendous benefits of living a life with a rich sense of meaning. If you ever wanted to know what makes people tick, the 7 fundamental Human Needs are it.

Coming up with the 7 Fundamental Human Needs

A lot of work has been done in the social sciences to identify fundamental human needs. Notably, the work of Abraham Maslow, Clayton Alderfer, Manfred Max-Neef, Frederick Herzberg, Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan, John Burton, and many others.

Maslow presented a hierarchy of needs in his 1954 book called Motivation and Personality. While it spurred a lot of work in the field, many aspects of his work have come under recent criticism, especially his hierarchical arrangement of needs.

Max-Neef, on the other hand, presents needs as a system, not a hierarchy, and writes, “Human needs must be understood as a system: that is, all human needs are interrelated and interactive. With the sole exception of the need for subsistence, that is, to remain alive, no hierarchies exist within the system. On the contrary, simultaneities, complementarities, and trade-offs are characteristics of the process of needs satisfaction.” In this article, we will view human needs as a system as proposed by Max-Neef. According to Max-Neef, the following is true about these needs:

“Fundamental human needs are finite, few, and classifiable.”
“Fundamental human needs are the same in all cultures and in all historical periods. What changes, both over time and through cultures, is the way or the mean by which the needs are satisfied.”

Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan founded the Self-Determination Theory that argues that three basic psychological needs “motivate the self to initiate behavior and specify nutriments that are essential for psychological health and well-being of an individual.” These three basic psychological needs are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. They argue that these needs are universal, innate, and psychological. Daniel Pink’s popular book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, that popularized mastery, autonomy, and purpose as the things that motivate us, is based on the Self-Determination Theory.

I have distilled this body of work into 7 fundamental human needs and created the mnemonic, SUCCESS, to represent them. I believe that to arrive at success in life, we must learn to meet these needs well in ourselves and in others around us.

As we get more into the 7 fundamental human needs, It helps to remember the words of Stephen Covey. He said, “If all the air were sucked out of the room you’re in right now, what would happen to your interest in this book? You wouldn’t care about the book; you wouldn’t care about anything except getting air. Survival would be your only motivation. But now that you have air, it doesn’t motivate you. This is one of the greatest insights in the field of human motivation: Satisfied needs do not motivate. It’s only the unsatisfied need that motivates. ” Keep in mind that the needs that motivate each of us are the unsatisfied needs, not the satisfied ones.

The 7 fundamental human needs are not individual needs but really categories of needs. A good way to call them will be the 7 categories of fundamental human needs to emphasize that each of the 7 needs shown represents a category with a spectrum of needs. Different people in different seasons of life will fall at different places on the spectrum of each of the categories of fundamental human needs. Keep in mind that, as mentioned above, these needs are interrelated and form a system of interactive needs that may look slightly different in each individual, yet the same in all humans across all cultures and all times.

The needs represented by my mnemonic, S.U.C.C.E.S.S, are:

Safety/security and survival
Understanding
Connection (love) and acceptance
Contribution/Participation
Esteem, Identity, Significance
Self-determination (Autonomy), Freedom, and Justice
Self-actualization and self-transcendence

Safety/security and survival

This is the need for safety/security and survival

Survival and safety needs are the first and second categories of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Survival. Survival needs include physiological needs such as the need to have food, water, air, breathing, excretion, reproduction, warmth, shelter, rest, sleep, homeostasis, etc.

Safety/Security. Safety needs include security, protection, work, resources, property, healthcare, structure, order, certainty, control, self-care, leisure, entertainment, etc.

People desire to control and structure their lives because that makes them feel safe. According to research by Dr. Lauren Leotti and her colleagues, “Converging evidence from animal research, clinical studies, and neuroimaging work suggest that the need for control is a biological imperative for survival, and a corticostriatal network is implicated as the neural substrate of this adaptive behavior.”

Unfortunately, our need for order, control, and certainty is always unsettled because we live in a world that is always changing. The only thing we can guarantee about lives and the future is that change will happen. The people around us and our environment are always changing.

Some common expressions of safety needs include the following. The need for

Financial security / economic well-being.
Personal security/protection
Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts
Health and wellness
Safety against accidents and injury.
Finding a job to procure our survival, self-care, safety, and security needs.
Getting health insurance and health care,
Contributing money to a savings account,
Moving into a safer neighborhood
Need for comfort, certainty, consistency, and control
Need for structure (order) within one’s life. We may express this through financial security.
Order and closure
Physical, Psychological, Social, and Spiritual health
Self-care: Time alone ( for reflection or thinking alone, exercise (walking, sports, exercise, shopping, etc.) to increase physical health and well-being, Personal space, Humor (the need to laugh), Leisure / Rest / Recreation

Different people have different levels of each need in different seasons of life.
Take, for example, the need for structure and control in one’s life. If you put this need on a scale of 0 to 10, every human being will show some need for it. No one will have zero need for structure. However, some people may be 4/10 while others may have 9/10. We may perceive those who are 9/10 as exhibiting a strong need for structure while those who have 4/10 as having less of a need for structure. However, it’s important to remember these two people are on two ends of the same spectrum. They are requiring different levels of the same need. This is true with all the needs. For example, some people can perform well at work on 6 hours of sleep while others need 9 hours to perform well.

Also, for financial security, some people express this need so much so that they need to know all income and expenses and make sure that there is always a surplus saved up. Without that, they are stressed.

Understanding

This is the need to be understood and to understand. It is the need to 1) be understood by others and 2) to understand others and the world around us (i.e. to gain knowledge, understand, and develop competence).

“If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Stephen R. Covey

The need to be understood. Humans are communal beings, designed to live in relationships with and communicate with others. Each of us has an inherent human need to be understood. Our survival depends on it. Babies depend on mothers understanding their needs and feeding and changing them as needed. Toddlers and little children get frustrated, cry, and throw tantrums if they are not being understood. We are created to rely on others for our needs to be met and being understood by others is how those needs will be addressed–all of the other six categories of needs require that we are understood by others so that they can collaborate affirmatively to meet those needs.

The human need to be understood takes center stage when we are in a conflict, dispute, or any negotiation. When people don’t feel understood, they tend to be afraid and unsure of how the other party would cooperate toward meeting their needs. They can become afraid and enter into a fight, flight, or freeze mode. That is why using active listening skills such as open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summaries (OARS) is crucial to effectively engage people in difficult and often tense communication. Those active listening skills will enhance any direct communication with another person for any reason. That’s why counselors, physicians, negotiators, and other professionals use it when effective communication is crucial.

The need to understand, learn, and grow. All human beings have a need to learn, grow, and fulfill their potential. We study, investigate, educate, experiment, analyze, and meditate because of this inner curiosity and need to understand the world around us. Schools, colleges, universities, on-the-job learning programs, mentors, apprenticeships, disciples, teachers, coaches, parents, communities, and national education programs are just a few human attempts to meet this need.

If you have observed an infant, you see this incessant curiosity and drive to understand everything around them. They feel things, put things in their mouth. Almost without trying, children are moved by this need to explore, experiment, and understand the world around them. That’s how growth happens in children and that’s how growth happens in adults.

Growth (development) is a characteristic of all living organisms. Everything that has life grows and develops. This need for growth is not only limited to physical growth but also extends to spiritual, psychological, and social growth as well. See more on growth under self-fulfillment or self-actualization.

This need for understanding and growth is a psychological need that involves us using our minds to understand others and the world around us. It includes the need to understand ourselves, other people, and everything else in our environment and world. It helps us to find guidance to navigate life, and wisdom to make wise decisions that safeguard and improve life.

Some elements of this need are:

The need to be heard and understood. We are relational beings and have the need to be understood by others.
Education. The need to acquire knowledge; to learning something new – This is a need everybody has, however, some people exhibit so much more that it’s a significant need for them at the time. Some people just love to learn. There are people with 3 or 4 graduate degrees. Education from teachers and sources like schools, families, universities, and communities fulfills this fundamental need for understanding.
Understanding is the comprehension of facts or knowledge that has been gathered. This is the need to make sense of facts, to find meaning in data, to get knowledge, and to find patterns that explain nature. Scientists come up with hypotheses and theories to try to understand the world through research. Yet, we are all scientists in our own little way. Different people express this need differently at different times and to different degrees. Children are always asking, why this, why that? There is a deep urge or curiosity that needs to be quenched with meaning. I for one cannot handle it when I am listening to a speaker and fail to understand a point they make. I get a strong urge to immediately stop them and get an explanation. Other people act differently simply because there are many phenotypical expressions of this one urge or need.
Wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge understood and applied. Wisdom is taking knowledge and putting it to work to make our lives better.
Guidance. We all express the need for guidance to travel the journey called Life. We each need a true north. A lot of people find this through religion or spirituality. Others find this through science, others atheism, some soul search, and others find it in a combination of sources.
Growth/Mastery(Competence). We are designed to hunger for growth to achieve our full potential. Mastery is the need to become better and better at something that matters.
Institutions of learning have always been created as long as man has existed on earth to meet this fundamental need for understanding. Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden was also a sin in the area of meeting this need.

Connection and Acceptance

This is the need for connection, love, belonging, acceptance, identity, care, and community; It is the need for others to accept us and for us to have strong relationships with loved ones (family, friends, and identity groups).

Belonging (connection) and love are shown through deep, enduring relationships and connections with others in your community. It is love from people you know you can count on no matter what because they love you unconditionally. In other words, it is the need to be accepted by others and to have strong, personal relationships with family, friends, and identity groups.

Good relationships and this kind of love go together because good quality relationships are the channel or conduit through which this kind of love circulates within a community of people. Good relationships are the only channels that can carry that kind of love. Without good relationships, you cannot have this unconditional love. Relationships are the arteries that carry the healing balm of love.

And research from Harvard University has supported this age-old wisdom that good relationships are the secret to a good life. We need good relationships to be healthy and happy. In fact, research has also shown that babies die when they are not loved, when good relationships aren’t there, even if all other biological needs are met. This need is about belonging to a group or connecting with other people deeply. It’s a social need we all have. It is a need for emotional relationships. Some of the relationships that satisfy this need include friends, workgroups, social groups, community groups, family, romantic relationships, churches, religious organizations, sports teams, book clubs, gangs, cults, etc.

There is also a need for acceptance and approval from the aforementioned relationships. Connecting with others is how people avoid loneliness, depression, anxiety, etc.

Here are some needs that fall under the umbrella of this need.

Belonging: We all feel the need to be connected to a group of like-minded people. People need to feel that they belong somewhere.
Connection / Relationship: The need for friends and the need to give and receive love. We all have these needs but they are fulfilled differently. Some people prefer one-on-one relationships. They feel stressed within groups but comfortable one-on-one. At parties, you may see them in a corner chatting with one person that they know. Other people are just the opposite; they prefer group relationships. Some people just love hanging out with people more than others do. They have a higher need for visible relationships.
Acceptance and approval from a community of relationships.
Touching / Physical contact: These people often meet this need by asking for hugs, volunteering in a nursery or orphanage, getting a pet, getting a massage, etc. Jobs like nursing are good jobs for people with this need.
Empathy: Some people have a much higher need for people important to them to know what they are feeling than others. They prefer that those around them know the depth of their feelings and respond appropriately.

At the level of human physiology, we are designed to need love. Hormones like oxytocin are released when humans connect and touch. Human touch is so vital that brain development in children is impaired without it.

Question: How many people do you have in your life right now that you know you can count on their love and for them to be there for you no matter what?

Application Principle: Pursue love with all your heart, mind, and soul through building strong, enduring relationships with others.

All seven fundamental human needs are important, and I don’t believe in a hierarchy of needs. However, this need—unconditional love through good relationships—is particularly powerful.

Contribution/Participation

This is the need to contribute, care, and serve to make the people, community, and the world around us better. It is the need for influencing our communities through our participation.

We all feel the need to make the world a better place and to add value to those around us. Through contribution, we use our dreams, imagination, inventiveness, curiosity, intuition, courage, autonomy, determination, experience, interests, passions, gifts, skills, personality, work, insights, and ingenuity to create, design, interpret, invent, build, compose works, products, and services that improve the lives of those around us or make our world better and safer. Because leadership is influence, this includes the need for servant leadership.

To contribute, we need to create. As the name implies, creation refers to this inborn need to create or co-create. At our core, we are creative beings. This need for contribution is in part responsible for our ability as humans to thrive and propagate as a species. What you create can be a good or service, etc. The purpose of creation is to make a contribution. We are creative beings with a need to create and be creative. Even though it may sometimes feel as though people feel happy just being creative without necessarily always having a need to contribute to the welfare of others, it is likely that we feel good when we are creative because we are designed to live in a community contributing to the needs of others. It’s like sex. It’s designed for procreation but also feels good on its own and has other benefits attached to it somehow perhaps through those benefits to encourage procreation. Another term for contribution is participation; participation in improving the lives of others.

Here are some needs that fall into this category:

Need to give and do for others (contribution)
Need to have a project going on (creative need)
Need for a variety of experiences (variety inspires creativity; also removes boredom)
Anticipation – these people love to look forward to something that is coming up, such as a wedding, the birth of a baby, taking a trip, or seeing friends.

Effective creation and contribution require that we find out our purpose, our calling, and know our DESIGN. When we operate in our element, our sweet spot that we are able to give the world our best and greatest contribution. To fully meet this need for creative contribution, knowing your purpose or calling is vital. That’s a great place to strive to begin when seeking to meet this need.

Esteem and Identity

This is the need for esteem, identity, respect, significance, and recognition

Esteem is the need to be recognized by other people as competent and capable. It includes the need to know that our work matters and that we are making some impact in the world around us. Esteem has to do with respect that is earned as a result of our contribution to society and respect earned because of our identity. Unlike significance (described below) which is innate, esteem is based on our achievements or position in society. All human beings have a need to feel respected or esteemed because of their contribution. There are two types of esteem: esteem by self and by others. In other words, the need for esteem can be broken down into two parts based on their origin: internal (which is by oneself) and external (which is by others). Internal needs refer to self-esteem (self-respect) and external needs refer to esteem or the respect others give us. Both internal and external esteem comes from things like achievements, social status, and recognition by others. This need is met through achievement, self-respect, the respect of others, recognition, status, dominance, prestige.

Identity

A dictionary defines identity as
a. The condition of being a certain person or thing.
b. The set of characteristics by which a person or thing is definitively recognizable or known; the distinguishing character or personality of an individual: individuality
c. The awareness that an individual or group has of being a distinct, persisting entity; the relation established by psychological identification

Identity is an awareness or sense of self in relation to others and the rest of the world. Identify issues that arise when one’s identity is considered inferior, illegitimate, or threatened by others in some way.

Identity is concerned largely with the questions: “Who are you?” and “What does it mean to be who you are?” Stated otherwise, “who am I?” and “what does it mean to be who I am?”

People find their identity through language, religion, work, customs, values, and norms. Identity also provides a sense of belonging, self-esteem, and consistency. There are two types of identity needs: self-identity and social identity.

Significance and purpose

“Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life” Victor Frankl
“The inner ache of the heart is to find meaning and purpose in life.” Ravi Zacharias
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

A dictionary defines significance as:

importance; consequence
meaning; import
the quality of being significant or having a meaning.
what is intended to be, or actually is, expressed or indicated; signification; import: e.g. the three meanings of a word.
the end, purpose, or significance of something: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of this intrusion?

As a fundamental human need, significance is the need to feel that our lives have meaning and that we are important (i.e. we have value).

Significance and purpose address the questions: “Does my life matter?” and “What am I here for?”

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis that is focused on the meaning of human existence as well as on man’s search for meaning. His work, publicized in his classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, illustrates the centrality and universality of meaning as a motivating force in human life. The need for meaning is a powerful and fundamental human need.

Significance, first and foremost, has to do with a sense of meaning. Significance, secondly, has to do with the need to feel that you are important, special; that your life has meaning, and that you matter tremendously. In the words of King David, you are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” You are unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable in human history, and you have a purpose. In the words of Ravi Zacharias, “You are essentially worthy.”

People need to know that they are significant for simply being human, not because of anything they have done or any possessions they have. Significance is inspired by the principle of human dignity—innate human worth.

Our sense of identity has a huge influence on our sense of significance. We have two types of identities. Social identity and self-identity (personal identity). And both of them are crucial to our sense of importance.

Needs that are covered under significance and purpose include

Meaning & purpose
Spirituality
Identity

How people realize or develop a sense of significance.

When people find their meaning and purpose in life, it helps them realize their significance.
When people develop a healthy self-identity and social identity, it helps them realize their significance.
The story you tell yourself helps people find significance. This has to do with our self-identity.
Community and belonging. This has to do with social identity.
Spirituality helps people find their sense of significance.
All of the other six fundamental human needs help people have a sense of meaning.

Unlike esteem, which has to do with what we have accomplished, significance doesn’t focus on what we have accomplished. It has everything to do with how we are created–uniquely, one of a kind, with intrinsic purpose and meaning that then becomes substantiated as we live out our lives. It has everything to do with the fact that we are the apex of creation–the greatest species ever made and each of us has as much value and worth as all of us together. All of the seven fundamental human needs I teach, when they are in full flower, help people experience significance or meaning in life. In other words, when each of them is fully being met in a person’s life, the resultant is a feeling of significance or meaning in life. Even though significance is a fundamental human need, it is itself achieved by meeting the other human needs.

Purpose – Why am I here? What am I here for? Purpose is the object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim or goal. Purpose is why we live. It is the thing that gets us up in the morning. Purpose is a uniquely human need.

Self-determination (autonomy), Freedom, and Justice

Self-determination (autonomy) is the need to direct the affairs of our own lives. This includes the need for freedom and justice.

Self-determination, also called sovereignty, self-direction, or autonomy, is the need to direct our own lives. Daniel Pink’s work, presented in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates us, highlights the importance of mastery, autonomy, and purpose in motivating us. That’s because these are fundamental human needs.

The need for freedom is the need to be able to exercise choice in all aspects of life and to have no negative restraints on that ability to choose and live.

Distributive justice is the need for the just, fair, or equitable distribution of resources among all members of a community. This is crucial because it creates an environment for other needs to be met.

Self-actualization and Self-transcendence

This is the need for self-actualization, self-transcendence.

Self-actualization

To self-actualize is to develop or achieve one’s full potential. Self-actualization is the achievement of one’s full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and a grasp of the real world.

Self-actualization is the innate drive to become all one can be. It is the desire of humans to grow and become everything that they were created to be; to reach their full potential, to become all they can be. It is the inborn motive to realize one’s full potential.

Each of us has great potential. We all have seeds of greatness in each of us. It’s in the interest of the human species for all of us to live up to our full potential. “Self-actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is.” Abraham Maslow

It involves the need for self-development, living out one’s core values, and achieving goals as a means of becoming the best that one is capable of being.

Self-development (growth) is the development of one’s capabilities or potentialities. It is the state or process of improving or developing oneself. We all have the urge to become the best we can be. We want to achieve mastery in something, to develop ourselves so as to exhaust our potential for the benefit of mankind. That is good for the propagation of the human species as well as for the individual.

This means growing physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually. Dictionary.com says self-actualization is “the achievement of one’s full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and a grasp of the real world.” The American Psychological Association says self-actualization is a “person’s constant striving to realize his or her potential and to develop inherent talents and capabilities.” Growth is the path to self-actualization.

Self-actualization produces self-fulfillment, the feeling of being happy and satisfied because you are doing something that fully uses your abilities and talents. Self-fulfillment comes from fulfilling one’s purpose in life.

Self-transcendence

Later in his career, Abraham Maslow added self-transcendence, above self-actualization, as the highest human need. “The self only finds its actualization in giving itself to some higher goal outside oneself, in altruism and spirituality.” The Oxford Language Dictionary says self-transcendence is “the overcoming of the limits of the individual self and its desires in spiritual contemplation and realization.” Spiritual needs are part of self-transcendence, the desire to connect with God (a being higher and outside of oneself).

What happens when the fundamental needs are not being met?

Without connection, love, and belonging, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, stress, and clinical depression (and atypical depression can cause increased appetite and weight gain). Risk factors for depression include (among many): Certain personality traits, such as low self-esteem; financial problems; stressful life events; Few friends or other personal relationships, etc. Nature (genetic) and nurture (environment) causes are implicated as causes of depression. Without meeting esteem needs, people may suffer from an inferiority complex, weakness, helplessness, hopelessness, etc. As such, understanding human needs and meeting them in yourself and in others is a good way to reduce stress in relationships and on the job. When many people suffer from depression and anxiety, they eat more and become obese. Stress is linked to all kinds of diseases that take patients to the doctor’s office. I coach all my overweight and obese patients in my Slim Fit Lifestyle program to seek to satisfy their seven fundamental human needs. That is a key part of effective weight loss and maintenance.

Key points about the 7 Fundamental Human Needs

Doing meaningful work satisfies most of the seven needs and is the best way to satisfy these needs.
The needs are a system, not hierarchical. They are interrelated.
These needs are universal. People in every culture and throughout history have had them. They are simply satisfied in different ways.
They are not meant to be exclusive. Things that are true for one point may be true for several other points.
Some needs may overcome others. A child may choose to be with an abusive parent because he fulfills their need of belonging.
A person’s top 2 or 3 needs will determine the course he takes because he moves to try to satisfy them.
The degree to which people have or express a need varies from person to person and from season to season. So, we still need to know people to understand their specific needs.
The way people meet a need is different for different people. For example, some people express the need for charity or connection by thriving on “one-on-one attention” in their relationships with others, while others prefer group relationships. If you go to a party, you will see some people who find one person and chat in one corner, while others love to hang out with a group in a large circle, talking and socializing. Others require a need for more empathy from those they are in a relationship with than others. Some people just love being with people more than others. Some are more touchy-feely than others. For self-care, some people are invigorated by hanging out with friends and crowds, while others prefer time alone time for reflection and thinking. Sleep, for example, is something that everybody needs. However, some people need to have a specific number of hours of sleep per day to function properly. If they don’t have enough sleep, they become irritable, angry, stressed out etc. Others can handle less sleep without visible effects. Self-awareness is important here so that a person can organize their lives in a way that allows them to have the amount of sleep they need to function effectively. Another example is personal space. Some people need to have some protected space that is their own where others do not disturb while others don’t seem to have that need to the same extent.
Negotiating with others with whom we are in a relationship is necessary for us to get our needs met.
Self-awareness includes knowing yourself and how your fundamental needs are expressed.
Another way to categorize needs is that we have Physical, Emotional/Psychological, Social, and Spiritual needs.
#1 of these seven needs is equivalent to what Herzberg called incentives and hygiene factors. The rest are the motivators. You can read about Herzberg’s work here: http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation. It was his way of explaining why people do the things that they do.
These human needs are the result of research and understanding in the social sciences. I didn’t come up with any of them. Now, take a look at those groups of needs. How are we designed to meet them? In a word, relationship! Those needs can only be met as we steward our relationships with other people and the material world.
The only way self-fulfillment comes is by doing something for someone else. You feel self-fulfilled when you help someone else fulfill their dreams. Self-fulfillment doesn’t come through fulfilling your own dreams except they are to help someone else fulfill their own dreams.
Another good motivation model is the MAP model. MAP stands for Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose. People are motivated to get good (Master) something that they care about. They desire autonomy. And they want to live for a purpose greater than themselves.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944661/

Free pdf of Manfred Max-Neef’s book, Human Scale Development. http://www.wtf.tw/ref/max-neef.pdf

The 7 Fundamental Human Needs

Evolutionary Role of the Fundamental Human Needs

Why should you bother to know about the 7 Fundamental Human Needs?

Coming up with the 7 Fundamental Human Needs