The need for transcendence: motivator or tyrant

One of the primary needs of man is the need for meaning. We have a fundamental need to feel that we are important, that we matter, that we are “somebody.” That need is so great that it colors most of our lives.

It is a primal need that dates back to prehistoric times when being part of the herd meant survival and exclusion was a death sentence. Although most people are not even aware of the fact, that need is still with us today, as powerful as ever. We need to feel important.

How we satisfy this need for significance is extremely important because it defines most of the important decisions we make, how we live our lives, and what we will become. The difference between a jerk and a Good Samaritan is determined by how each of these two individuals will seek to satisfy the need for personal significance.

The need for personal significance is a great motivator, albeit almost unconscious. The need is there, however, most of the time, it is not recognized. Stay on the instinctive level. The need yearns to be satisfied but is not recognized as such.

Mindfulness and deliberate living are impossible without the conscious recognition of that primal need. Unlike the sexual drive, the need for meaning goes unrecognized and unrecognized as such. That is the reason why it can lead us down the wrong path without any awareness of the cause behind it.

In a materialistic world, the need for self-significance tends to express itself through a display of physical possessions. Hence the desire to acquire a big house, an expensive car and other toys that are the hallmark of abundance and opulence.

There is nothing wrong with material possessions as long as they are the by-products of the search for meaning and not the goal of that search. In other words, to seek to achieve meaning solely through a display of personal possessions is to miss the boat entirely.

We are not what we have. A poor person who finds and wears an expensive piece of jewelry is still a poor person, regardless of the value of that trinket. The same principle applies universally. The big house, the expensive car, and the fancy boat may appear important, but they are not the real thing.

To be effectively rewarded, a true sense of self-importance must be based on a person’s self-esteem. It comes when we can look at ourselves in the mirror and have the feeling that we have been true to ourselves and that we have been giving our best.

The true sense of self-importance comes with the realization that we have faced life with courage, that we have admitted our mistakes, tried to repair them as best we could, and that we are courageously pursuing the challenge of becoming all that we can. be.

True self-importance has nothing to do with the size of our bank account, our position in society, or the number of friends we have. Everything has to do with self-satisfaction, with genuine pride in our effort regardless of the results obtained.

Although we are not fully aware of it, there are some important needs that guide our decisions and, therefore, the course of our lives. That fact has to be consciously understood if we wish to have dominion over our destiny. The need for self-significance is probably the most influential of all these needs.

For that reason, we need to explore how we pursue that sense of self-meaning and make sure it’s done in the most empowering way possible. That need can be a great source of motivation as it can be a vile tyrant. It can lift us to great heights as it can crush our integrity in pursuit of the almighty dollars. It is our need, we are the masters, so it is up to us to decide.