I was having a really interesting conversation with my friend Anthony Willoughby yesterday, and he was saying that Belonging and Recognition are everything, because they create our identity which then leads us to do great things – and I was reminded of Maslow’s hierarchy, which does indeed have Belonging and Recognition as levels 3 and 4 of the human needs that we all have.
But these two sit on something more fundamental, which is Security. Maslow says we seek security in a deeper level than belonging, which in turn is deeper than recognition, so without security we can’t have the other two. If we think we don’t need security it’s because we’ve already got enough of it.
I asked Anthony about security, and he immediately scoffed dismissively and said “Security is a delusion – you’ll never get it and it’s not worth striving for”. In fact as we talked more I came around to his view, and we speculated that looking for security might take you in the WRONG direction. Yes it’s probably a built-in need we have, but maybe we should resist it, and instead come out of our comfort zone, and aim for things that are new and difficult, rather than try to put walls up around ourselves and protect / maintain our existing world?
I think Anthony is right. He himself is always moving forward, always exploring, meeting new people and trying new things, and that’s what makes him great. He does have security in himself, in that he knows he’ll always find an answer, he’ll always be OK, but he doesn’t rate physical or financial security as being anywhere near as important as belonging and recognition and then, ultimately, making a difference. He calls it contribution.
You could aim for security with the plan that later, built on that, you can make your contribution. But life is short! Maybe it’s better to ignore security and get straight on with making a contribution!
