Recently, I took a 2 week break from trading.
During this break, iv took the time to do a lot of psychology maxxxing. And I want to share it with you guys, especially the younger ones among you who are completely unaware of it, like I have been.
I came across the '6 Basic Human Needs' concept.
All human beings need;
- Certainty
- Uncertainty
- Significance
- Love & connection
- Growth
- Contribution / Purpose
Certainty;
This is needed in life to live without stress or fear. Knowing you have access to food, water, air to breathe, safety, and shelter are absolute basics. This extends into relationships, assurance your partner has your back, won't cheat, will be faithful etc. assurance your family and friends will support you when needed. But you need balance, too much certainly is bad. If you knew what was going to happen every day of the rest of your life with absolute certainty, you'd get bored. Even if you were destined to be incredibly successful and achieve all of your dreams, you'd not be excited, you're just waiting..
That's why you need some uncertainty;
Not "am I going to crash the car and die tonight" type uncertainty, but good uncertainty. Like your partner surprising you, or saying get dressed up, I'm taking you somewhere special tonight, and not telling you. Healthy suspense and tension in the relationship, keeping each other guessing, impulsive, exciting. Variety is the spice of life they always say, this is uncertainty. Jumping from a plane, it's scary, and safe, but there's that doubt in your mind that says there's a small chance you could die.. so it's exciting, and uncertain.
Significance;
The need to feel like you're wanted, and important to the people around you. Feeling unique to your partner. If you don't feel Significance, you can feel useless, like a burden, like you drag others down, causing self worth issues, poor self esteem and low morale.
Love & Connection;
Goes without saying, one of the most powerful emotions is love. Feeling it and giving it to family, friends, partners. Specifically to a partner. You can get connection to anything, gaming, trading, sports, health/fitness, with pets etc. But true love is with your partner when it's reciprocal.
Growth;
People need to feel like they're moving forwards, improving themselves in life. Be it careers, relationships, rankings on a game leaderboard, growing social media presence. It takes many forms. If people do not feel growth, they feel stuck, in a rut, like they're treading water or drowning.
Contribution;
People need to feel like we give something back to the world around us. Even the most selfish people get a dopamine/oxytocin hit from helping others even if they refuse to show it. Adding value to the world and the lives of people around us chemically, biologically, and physiologically contributes to happiness.
If you have high levels of all 6, you're probably on top of the world, enjoy life to the fullest and feeling whole.
If you have 4-5 you're going to be content, but working towards some things. You're likely blissfully unaware of your happiness.
If you have less than 4 you are probably unhappy, worrying about things and either drowning in sadness, or actively looking to improve your life.
2 or less and youre going to be depressed and feel like the world is against you.
Now that I understand these 6 human needs, my life is much simpler. I have almost total clarity on what's not working, and what I need to do to improve it.
Each of the 6 has further levels of understanding that you can really dial in on to really grasp them more.
Understand these things, and hack your own psychology to make life better 🤘🏻