Bonus: The 4 Needs of Humans

Hi! if you liked my previous post about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People I am sure you will like this post too. Today's post is extracted from Steven Covey's latter book The 8th Habit - From Effectiveness to Greatness, and it explores the 4 needs of humans.

Before going through the four needs, I should recall the common incident most of us have been through. We often encounter an old friend and have a chitchat with: "How have you been?"
Our friend automatically answers with pride that daily life is all about office and home; sadly he/she assumes this is something good and that it reflects being a business professional. The bad news is: this is not something good, this is an unbalanced system of living!

According to our other friend (Steven Covey) in order to live a balanced life, humans have four needs to fulfill; body, mind, heart, and spirit.

• Body: It is not necessary to be an athlete to fulfill this need, a walk every weekend could do the minimum. The body need also involves taking care of what you eat.
  
• Heart: This need is about our feelings; it includes our family, soul mates, friends. In my opinion it can also include pets and materials (a car for example).
• Mind: The mind has to be challenged regularly. Reading, spinning a Rubik's cube or solving a Sudoku puzzle are all examples of satisfying this need.
  
• Spirit: The spiritual need manages our relation with our creator and the unseen world in general. Prayers, contemplation, Yoga and arts -to some extent- are all examples of methods to fulfill this need.
  

When I first entered my career I faced an unbalanced system of life. For me, I consider understanding the four needs of humans a valuable lesson that helped me overcome my new challenges and reach a balanced life style. Of course, even if one could not fully satisfy the four needs at the beginning, trying to do so is a fruit itself.