First of all thank you so much, everyone, for your amazing feedback about the last week’s post. It means a lot to me. Frankly, it was for me also one of my favorite posts, the subject I found very interesting and fascinating. I will definitely continue that topic. In fact, I am still in the amaze of dimensions.
Later I was imagining about all those dimensions of the world and suddenly a thought came to my mind. We do talk and research a lot about dimensions of the world and possibilities of other universes. But what about our dimensions of life.
By using dimensions like length, width, depth etc. we describe or locate something in the earth. But are there anything to measure or describe your life. What would you call a good life or a bad life? What are those lives dimensions?
Well, this does not have a straight forward answer and answer may vary person to person. For a person who has to struggle daily to get food, having a good meal every day may be a good life to him/her. On the other hand, people who have the basic comforts of life, having a good meal daily is of nothing exciting to him. He would not consider a good life is consist of just good food. Someone correctly said-
” The life you are living now is also dream of millions”
Then how do we say what is a good life?
In the year 1943, a Psychologist named ‘Abraham Maslow’ put forward a theory called ‘A theory of human motivation’ (known as ‘hierarchy of needs’) which answers the basic questions of human life like what motivates people to wake up and work? Why do we go to school? why we need friends or why employees get paid vacations? etc.
According to this theory, people are motivated by their unsatisfied needs. As each one of these needs satisfied (or fulfilled), it drives and next need emerge. For example, if someone’s need of food is satisfied then he/she will desire for better clothing or better housing etc.
However, there are two kinds of needs ‘lower order needs’ and ‘higher order needs’. Now, what’s the difference between these two?
‘Lower order needs’ are mainly fulfilled externally means needs such as food, clothing, shelter, security etc are lower order needs and these need to be fulfilled. It doesn’t depend on your wish or opinion. You need food otherwise you will die. Without shelter, you can’t rest properly.
But higher order needs are fulfilled internally i.e without your desire or wish these needs such as social belonging, self-esteem or self-actualization are not fulfilled.
This is a beautiful theory that depicts human behavior. Look at the picture, it shows as the lower needs are fulfilled humans should crave for higher order needs.
I use the word human should crave for because not every human fulfill higher order needs. As you need to push yourself to fulfill those needs those are optional to us.
So does this theory answers what makes a good life?
If you observe it carefully it does. Let’s take a few examples- you must have seen those people who are very successful in their professions but still their life is miserable, why is that? Probably he/she lacks in the other dimensions of life. He neglects the importance of friends and family. According to this theory, he is neglecting his ‘love and belonging’ needs. In the opposite case if someone has a great social life but lacks in fulfilling his/her safety needs such as employment, security even then he/she cannot fill great about his/her life.
In conclusion, you always need to fulfill your lower needs first before reaching the higher needs and one cannot have a good life just by fulfilling few needs and not paying attention to others.
Remember I was talking about dimensions of life. Just like we use dimensions of the earth to measure something. Dimensions of life are also a way to evaluate life.
the Those dimensions are- 1. Physical 2. Emotional 3. Financial 4. Intellectual and 5. Spiritual. If you think there are more then do comment and let me know.
Just like ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ you need to become better at all the dimensions as you grow up to become a better version of yourself. Let’s explain the dimensions little bit-
- Physical- This is of course very obvious, without a healthy body you cannot do anything good in life. Also, a healthy mind resides only in a healthy body.
2. Emotional- There is a great line which says ‘ Humans buy emotions not things’, you can imagine by this line how emotional we are. That’s why it’s important to take care of emotional health. In today’s generation, mental diseases are more common than physical. So a crucial question is how well are you emotionally?
3. Finance- This one is the most well-known dimension by which often people measure others. Of course, it’s a significant dimension. But remember financial knowledge is not the same as having a lot of money. A person with financial knowledge can make money from scratch but for a financially dumb guy once lost, it’s forever lost.
4. Intellect- Leonardo da Vinci said ‘ Learning never exhausts mind’. Once you realize that, you will feel great satisfaction inside. Intellect is a gift to humans, not every species have that. So utilize it for your own joy. As the fulfilment, you get here is internal, you don’t need others approval or opinions to feel happy or satisfied.
5. Spiritual- This is the most confusing and misunderstood dimension to people. Whenever someone says spiritual we imagine a picture where a monk is meditating in a mountain or forest. You don’t have to be a monk or anything special to be spiritual (you can be if you wish). It is about valuing yourself, being an empathetic person, believing that all the differences, boundaries are in our own mind. we all are one and. Being spiritual is respecting that oneness.
How do you make sure that you are improving your score on all the dimensions?
Of course, you know the answer. You just need to implement all those. Real success is never one dimensional. You are good intellectually but you are emotionally exhausted, that’s not a success. You need to improve in every area to become a successful person. Probably that’s a good life.
There is a technique called ‘mind mapping’ where to get deep into a topic you just write down your thoughts in a diagram form according to the way they connect with each other. Try sometime, it’s a great technique. Here is one made by me-
The more dimensions you add to your life, the more fascinating it would be. In case, if you are thinking you are too busy in your life to learn something you always wanted, remember the following quote-
Have a fruitful week. until next time – Joy♥
Source:
Well written Mr. Joy, you have stressed the most important issues to look upon. Thank you, keep writing.
Thank you for your encouragement