Need for Fulfillment

Throughout every stage of life, we all have values which underpin us and determine who we choose to spend our time with, how we spend our time and the way in which we behave. Take a look at your social circles: in some way, shape or form, every person in your social circle shares a common factor. That could be a hobby, a personality trait, the school/university you attend or the career you have. For parents, some of their social circles are based on a common factor of having children within the same age range. For University students, their term-time social circles are based on undertaking the same course, living in the same accommodation or attending the same societies. 

The priorities we set for ourselves mean that we all lead different lives to enrich the aspects of life that matter most to us.  For example, a dedicated sportsman will naturally spend their free time engaging in different activities to an aspiring artist. Every individual is unique and motivated by different factors to help them make decisions or achieve their goals.

As we get older, our social circles and hobbies may change due to our priorities in life changing. Generally, when people are younger, they prioritise spontaneity and freedom over certainty and stability. Over the course of life as people mature, they may want to settle down and have a career and/or family. Consequently, most people will begin to prioritise stability over variety due to their responsibilities growing. At this stage in my life, one of the key things I am seeking is adventure and spontaneity to make me feel fulfilled. I am sure that in a decade though, I will be seeking certainty and order once I start to settle down, and finally start taking more calculated risks (!).

A couple of years ago, I learned about the 6 key needs every person has in order to reach a sense of fulfilment in life. In order for people to feel content, they will seek to change their habits and spend their time in accordance with fulfilling these needs. As I said before though, every person has their own values in life, so the ranking of these needs will be different for every individual. Moreover, the order of these needs will change throughout everyone’s life as they grow older and their priorities change with the natural course of time.

Today I will be sharing these 6 key needs with you, explaining each one, and offering you the chance to rank each need according to how much you currently prioritise it in your life.

1.     Growth 

This 1^st need may seem fairly obvious, but in life we need to feel as though we are growing as a person in some way or another to feel fulfilled. Of course, there are different types of growth in life, including emotional, intellectual and spiritual, and there are different things we can do to cultivate this growth.

For me personally, I rank ‘growth’ highly in my list of needs as self-improvement has always been a top priority for me. Thus, I always strived to push myself at school to grow intellectually, I love to practise yoga and meditation to grow spiritually, and I enjoy reading books on emotional intelligence to grow emotionally.

2.     Contribution

For a lot of people, helping others is a means to make them feel fulfilled. Volunteering in the community and contributing to society for example by raising awareness of a charity or cause, or simply spending time with a younger sibling to help them with their work gives a lot of people a real feel-good factor. Many people will also choose a career based off of how much they can directly impact lives (such as a doctor, teacher, or engineer).

Contributing has always been a really important value in my life, and thus I spent a lot of my time in sixth form volunteering in my community both inside and outside of school. I also know that in order to feel fulfilled in my career-life, I need to choose a job in which I can directly contribute to other’s lives.

3.     Love and Connection

Humans are sociable beings, so it is only natural that the need to feel loved by other people is important to many. This doesn’t just encapsulate romantic love, it also includes platonic love between friends and family. Having a strong support network of loving connections to rely on is vital for people to feel fulfilled and supported especially when life gets tough.

4.     Significance  

Feeling significant and knowing your place in society can provide people with a sense of importance and self-worth. Particularly in the early years of a child’s development, parents and teachers recognise how important it is for children to feel significant and recognised. Think back to your early days of school to when you got a golden star for a piece of work, or maybe you were awarded with merits in high school when you submitted a good piece of homework. This type of positive-reinforcement is so important for children to feel supported and valued as they grow and develop, but even later in life, many adults still prioritise this need.

5.     Variety

As I stated previously, having a lot of spontaneity, excitement and adventure in life is a way for many young people to feel fulfilled. When you’re younger, you don’t yet have the responsibilities which come later in life (such as maintaining a steady source of income, paying the bills and raising children). When you’re young, you have the whole world to discover and many people are eager to travel and explore whilst they have more freedom to do what they want and only have themselves to think about. That isn’t to say that many adults don’t also prioritise spontaneity in their lives though!

6.     Certainty 

A sense of certainty can help people feel fulfilled as many crave safety, order and control in life. Having a sense of stability is particularly important for parents as they need to know that they can provide for their children and balance this with a social life and sustain a career. I feel that times are changing though with regards to careers. I recently read a study which revealed that millennials will change jobs an average of four times in their first decade out of university, compared to about two job changes by Gen Xers in their first ten years out of university. Whether that’ll lead ‘certainty’ to be more or less of a priority in people’s lives is unclear, but I suppose only time shall tell! Moreover, given the current political climate in the UK with Brexit, after speaking to numerous people, there’s no way to deny that people are feeling less stability in life than ever before. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that we are having a nationwide stability crisis in the UK.

I hope this post was insightful into the 6 key needs every person has in their life. So, how do you rank these 6 key needs in your life? Have they changed over time? And how do you think the key need of ‘certainty’ will change priority in light of my generation’s career situation and the current political climate in the UK? 

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