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Where are we on Maslow’s Hierarchy today?

3D GIF:  created by Martin Roch

Yesterday, having lunch with girlfriends, we talked about how hard it is to get on the property ladder, and not only for the under 30s as this would appear to be a universal challenge.

What people are concerned with on a day-to-day will vary depending on where we are in the world and what our personal circumstances are.

According to Maslow, human needs were arranged in the form of a hierarchy with physiological survival needs at the bottom and the more creative and intellectually oriented self-actualisation needs at the top.

However, with wages not being able to keep pace with the prices of things like energy and food, we are seeing the biggest squeeze of living standards and it’s unsure when things will recover.  This puts our safety needs in jeopardy and this is what people are talking about. Here in the UK, the prices of things we consume have been rising at twice the pace of the prices of the things we produce. The pursuit of self-actualization may not be our biggest concern right now.

Self-Transcendence

I’m recently seeing self-transcendence on the top of the pyramid. It was added by Maslow later on when he noticed a shift in people’s values and a consideration for the needs of others, with a move beyond materialism and superficiality.  There has most definitely been a shift in identity with people being less concerned with ego and more aware of others around them. Not always, but it’s there!

My former business coach, Katie, is someone I met at a crossfit gym in Portsea Island in 2014. I asked her for her opinion …..

Katie Jewell, New Business Director

The pyramid as we know it addresses:

  • Physiological needs – air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction
  • Safety needs – personal security, employment, resources, health, property
  • Love and belonging – friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection
  • Esteem – respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom
  • Self-actualization – desire to become the most that one can be and in 2023 this can be to continue to upskill with further education, to work to our strengths and skills, to pursue our life dreams and seek happiness. 

All of these I say yes to.  Just not sure that we are motivated to fulfil our needs as per Maslow in a hierarchical order in 2023. 

However, despite its flaws, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has relevance. 

If you think about some of the bestsellers over the years such as The Secret, The Road Less Travelled, Why Entrepreneurs Should Eat Bananas, The Tipping Point, Reinventing organizations, Etc, – all causing people to think and act – self-transcendence brings in the spiritual and self-searching side of outstanding thinkers, scientists, and philanthropist businessmen who seek to help others, with a shift from self.

Abraham Maslow believed that self-transcendence was the highest level of human development, beyond self-actualization.

Thinking about this on the train home, I asked my friend and design collaborator, Martin Roch, to create something to go with my thoughts and he produced this GIF. 

It’s hard to measure satisfaction derived from meeting needs, and needs aren’t always hierarchical.  There was no one answer at our lunch because none of us can forecast what lies ahead in coming years and in March 2023, can anyone?

Life Musings

There’s a line in my About page which says:

Businesses are just people and bringing out people’s personalities and specialties helps to form an opinion and an emotional connection.

Finola Sloyan

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