How Do You Satisfy Your Basic Needs?
- Our needs can be satisfied in 2 basic ways.
- Most people satisfy their needs immediately.
- Successful people work 14-18 hours per day!
In Part 1 you found out how we all have the same basic human needs. In this article, I will explain why the way you satisfy your needs has a big impact on the success or failure you achieve.
How Do You Satisfy Your Basic Needs?
Each need can be satisfied in 2 ways. You can either satisfy it now, or sometime in the future. I like to call this immediate or delayed gratification.
Most Common Way To Satisfy Needs
Most people want something now, so short-term immediate gratification is the most common form of need fulfillment.
For example, a student decides to drop out of school, get a job and buy a car so he can impress the ladies.
He has now satisfied his short term need, but at what cost? Most likely a lifetime of low wages and unfulfilling work.
Simply put, people prefer to do what is fun and easy, rather than hard and boring. For this reason, immediate gratification with little or no regard for future consequences, is the most common form of need fulfilment and also one of the biggest causes of failure.
Why Society Is Geared Towards Failure
50 years ago when children were asked what they wanted to be when they were older, most would answer an Astronaut or a Teacher.
What’s the answer today?
“I wanna be famous”!
In other words they want all their needs fulfilled in the shortest period of time, with the least amount of effort.
Since we are all naturally lazy and greedy, this is hardly surprising. But what has changed in the last 50 years that has made society so focused on short term gain? Well, there are many factors, but here are a few…
I once read a study on how the introduction of the TV remote control was responsible for increasing ‘impatience’ within society.
Instead of having to get up and change the channel, you could now flick between them with the press of a button. Immediate results, minimal effort.
How about deliveries and the promise of getting something fast? Order a pizza and ‘if it doesn’t arrive within 20 minutes your money back’.
What about instant messaging or emails? No more waiting a week for your letter to be received!
Whilst getting things done quickly is certainly a good thing, it has created a tendency for us to think about now and not the future.
This causes us to engage in actions that ultimately lead to long term failure. You can see this in almost everyone around you.
People can’t wait to finish work, so they can go home and spend the rest of their time socializing and watching TV. This comes at the expense of long term failure in life.
What Successful People Do
So with the majority of the population unwilling to delay satisfying their needs, is it any wonder that only a small percentage of people become truly successful?
Successful people think long term, and this means experiencing short term pain in exchange for long term gain.
I remember reading about Bill Gates when he was younger. He was so committed to his work, his colleges would often find him sleeping under his desk. That’s short term pain!
Jump forward a few years and what’s he’s experiencing now? That’s right, long term gain, and lots of it!
But please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying you should get rid of your bed and start sleeping under your desk!
Leisure time is extremely important and you need it to function at your best. But if you want to be really successful, you need to be working at least 14-18 hours a day, not the standard 8 hours.
Remember, to be successful do what successful people do. 8 hours is to earn a living, anything over that is to earn success.
Don’t be discouraged! The fact that you are reading an article now about improving your life instead of something about a celebrity, shows that you are already willing to experience some short term pain in order to achieve long term gain. I just hope my articles aren’t too painful for you!
Coming Up In Part 3
In Part 3 you will learn how successful people are able to delay immediately satisfying their needs and also find out what drives them to succeed.
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