{"id":21879,"date":"2020-12-15T09:57:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T13:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=21879"},"modified":"2020-12-27T18:36:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T22:36:31","slug":"4-basic-human-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/4-basic-human-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Basic Human Needs: The Key to Fulfillment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are the 4 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-are-the-basic-human-needs\/\">basic human needs<\/a>? How do humans fulfill each of these needs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a difference between going through each day and feeling fulfilled. Humans get a sense of fulfillment only through satisfying 4 basic human needs: \u201cto live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading for more about the 4 basic human needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fulfilling Your 4 Basic Human Needs&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a difference between living day to day and feeling fulfilled. <strong>Humans get a sense of fulfillment only through satisfying four fundamental human needs: \u201cto live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The need to live involves your physical needs for survival, including food, shelter, clothing, good health, and money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The need to love pertains to humans\u2019 need to be social and have relationships with other people in which they can love, be loved, and feel they belong.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The need to learn is your need to continuously nourish and develop your mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The need to leave a legacy pertains to a more spiritual desire to live a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/find-purpose-in-your-life\/\">life of purpose<\/a> and meaning, in which you feel you\u2019re contributing to society.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neglecting any of these needs can create or feed urgency addiction\u2014if you don\u2019t preemptively address them in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/quadrant-2-7-habits\/\">Quadrant II<\/a>, they fester to become emergencies in Quadrant I.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Take Care of Your Four Needs in a Balanced Way&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The 4 basic human needs are interrelated\u2014whether each is satisfied affects the fulfillment of the others. <strong>If any of these needs are unmet, that lack can easily hamper your ability to meet the other three needs; all four needs must be taken care of collectively to maintain quality of life.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, people often tend to compartmentalize these four areas of need and address them with a \u201ctouching bases\u201d paradigm. This paradigm ignores the needs\u2019 interrelatedness and defines balance by constantly switching from one need to the next in an effort to keep all of them satisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the \u201ctouching bases\u201d paradigm looks at your need to earn money independently from your spiritual need to contribute to society, but this can lead to an unfulfilling career that leaves you wanting more. Or you may see your need to learn separately from your need to love, failing to acknowledge that developing deep, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/meaningful-relationships-ray-dalio\/\">meaningful relationships<\/a> entails a continuous process of learning how to love others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If a need is unmet, you can put more energy into the other areas to help fulfill it. <\/strong>For example, if your need to love is lacking because you\u2019re going through a divorce, you can bolster your capacity to get through that hardship by making a point to nourish your physical needs by exercising, your mental needs by learning about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/building-healthy-relationships\/\">healthy relationships<\/a>, and your spiritual needs by taking care of yourself and focusing on areas of purpose and meaning in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the 4 basic human needs? How do humans fulfill each of these needs? There is a difference between going through each day and feeling fulfilled. Humans get a sense of fulfillment only through satisfying 4 basic human needs: \u201cto live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy.\u201d Keep reading for more about the 4 basic human needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[176],"class_list":["post-21879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-spiritual","tag-first-things-first","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 Basic Human Needs: The Key to Fulfillment - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Humans get a sense of fulfillment only by satisfying 4 basic human needs. 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