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Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to realize your goals

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious.

― William ShakespeareKing Lear

The physiological needs

Abraham Maslow, a famous American psychologist, in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, explains five basic needs that one should fulfill in order to concentrate on inspirations from the outside world. Hierarchically speaking, we first need to answer our physiological needs, which further include food, air, water, clothing, shelter, and sex. We take motivation from external factors to fulfill these basic needs. After meeting our physiological needs, we aim to make our lives safe and secure; hence, our safety needs are placed second on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Such needs include health, certainty, control, routine, order, familiarity, and stability.

The social needs

strength

Next, we concentrate our efforts on meeting our social needs, which include acceptance, sense of belonging, affection and love. Placed fourth on this hierarchy are our esteem needs, such as self-esteem, self-respect, strength, adequacy, achievement, freedom, independence, confidence, and competence. Other subsidiary set of esteem needs includes dominance, appreciation, dignity, importance, recognition, glory, reputation, prestige, fame, and status. As we keep achieving these needs, we become more confident and motivated toward realizing higher objectives of ours. All of these four needs are actually our deficiency needs since these have a lack of something as their base. We heavily rely on external sources to meet these needs.

The need for self-actualization

potential

Finally, yet importantly, the need for self-actualization is placed fifth on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. When a person thinks that he has his first four needs, he can concentrate on being true to his nature. Self-actualization helps one discover those talents that were lying dormant thus far. Since the deficiency doesn’t haunt him anymore, he can now look for myriad ways to reach his full potential. Self-actualization is necessary to identify what one is fitted for, since knowing oneself is the key to realize higher goals. Therefore, a decent unification of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is necessary to ensure the success of any goal.

Identify your inner force of development

inspiration from others

Listen to your inner voice if you seriously want to bring about a positive change in and around you. An oblivious soul seeks inspiration from anything positive that comes his way. That’s the reason, maybe, we prefer relying on some sort of inspiration from external elements, which could join forces to suggest the right way for us. Remember you won’t always find extrinsic motivation, as certain things are beyond your control and you cannot force events to follow your mind. Therefore, it becomes necessary for all and sundry to look inside and try to deduce motivation from within when external inspiration starts diminishing to nihility.

Finish simple tasks first

self-confidence strengthens

Humans are progressive by nature. This quality makes them different from other species that don’t have the capability to think of development or growth. Our inner force aka the strength of will always finds a way when nothing works for us. No matter how difficult the task is, willpower inspires one to continue his efforts until s/he achieves his or her goal. We need to add dynamism to our willpower just to ensure that the self-realization process could become easier than otherwise. Speaking in terms of goal setting, we should do simple tasks first. When we do so, our self-confidence strengthens and accordingly, reflects in even more dynamism is subsequent, tougher tasks.

One task at a time

dedication

Your inner force guides you not to scatter your energies in doing more than one task at a time. Instead of leaving something half-done and jumping on to another task, it’s always beneficial for you to accomplish one task fully and with due dedication. Your inner force is powerful enough to negate any claims of failure you keep considering every now and then. Inner force instills courage and faith in humans, which further help them accomplish even the most challenging tasks. When you listen to your inner voice, you can easily stay away from human weaknesses like restlessness, indifference, worry, boredom, timidity, pessimism, and laziness.

Life is purposely difficult for all. Rather than lamenting over pain and tragedy, and relating them to our existence, won’t it be sensible to consider them opportunities to develop our inner powers? Had the world been perfect, inner growth and struggle would have been daydreams for sure. Since we can overcome our difficulties, we can improve and become better with each passing day. Our inner force of development paves the way for a bright future ahead of us.

Are you inspired to take action in order to achieve your goals after reading about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? But at the same time, are you unsure about where and how to begin? The answer is – mind mapping. Read on to know more about the art of mind mapping and how it can help you to reach your goals.

Unleash the power of mind mapping to achieve your goals

Mind mapping is all about creating a diagram or picture of what you think about a specific thing. It is a simple creation of a center, circle and spokes. Starting from a simple circle in a paper’s center with spikes emanating out to a complex design, a mind map can be anything like this. Mind mapping is actually a good way to organize information and connect it to the already existing knowledge. A mind map is a powerful tool to gain an understanding of a variety of things, as well as to reach your goals.

In a regular mind map, you put an idea in the center of a circle and then branch it out through spikes that represent secondary ideas. Thus, it is a great way to organize your ideas about anything. Some studies show that mind mapping is a very effective tool for increasing productivity. Since it organizes and shapes information in a logical manner, you also tend to improve learning through a mind map. It further helps in the better retention of information. A mind map is a visual layout that helps in enhancing your memory.

The power of moving closer to your goals

Mind mapping provides you the power of reaching your goals. You can create your own set of goals and sub-goals using an effective mind map. Using a mind map, you can go to any level of details. You can map all the steps you need to take to reach your goals. For example, you may create a To-Do list for a project using a mind map. For this purpose, you may write about your main goal in the center circle. Then, you may subdivide your goal into several tasks that need performing to reach that goal. These tasks may be listed in outside circles that surround the central circle.

Use spikes to connect the central circle to all small circles and write about your every task on every spike. You may further keep branching out these smaller circles and keep subdividing your tasks into action items. Thus, it can be organized like a nuclear chain reaction map. This detailed mind map will help you in understanding the entire process required to reach your goals. This will provide you all the information you need to support your task performance.

You will also have the knowledge of every step you need to take and every deadline you need to meet. Thus, it becomes way simpler to achieve your goals in an organized manner.

Why does mind mapping work?

Thoughtful man

Mind maps give you ways to structure and restructure your thoughts, as you can anytime drag your previously defined circles and reorganize them to modify your diagram. It depends on your changing requirements and altered tasks. You can do restructure your mind maps easily using simple software like Microsoft Word. A nicely designed mind map can help you be highly effective at performing activities. This supports the working of your brain in a more organized way. With a mind map, you will find it easier to retain information.

You can support all your ideas and facts through efficient mind mapping. It is actually based on the concept of visual thinking that makes it effective to structure, learn and retain information. You can unleash the power of mind mapping in any task area. Use the concept to make your life better. It is a helpful tool to make you achieve what you want, and that too in an effective manner. Thus, you only need to find ideas for its creative implementation and follow correct logic and steps. This will help you to make several processes smoother and reach your goals faster.

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