Friday, November 14, 2014

Thought for the Day - The Core Need Is to Be Acknowledged

The basic human need seems to just be acknowledged. First and foremost.
Self-help, spirituality, social media - all indicate a need to be acknowledged, to stay relevant.

(Then come other forms of how we want to be acknowledged.)
The tree - does it have a need to be acknowledged too?
Or in other words, that "we are enough" and "doing a good job of it". Life is blissful on days when we are acknowledged. Life is messy when we are not.

Let me approach this from two angles - the self and others.

From a self-help angle
If the goal is to feel good by ourselves (a good way to ensure happiness) it is important to take responsibility for it. Forget others,what they say, don't say. You must form this belief that you are most relevant to the existence of this world. That everyone in this world is actually out to help you live out your destiny. Don't be apologetic about it. (Will they really etc.) First, you buy into that belief. You acknowledge yourself. Your power. Your capability to seek your own happiness and not be dependent on someone else to provide that.

By acknowledging yourself, your power and your relevance in the world, by knowing that your every breath makes a difference already, you can choose every act, every reaction, every emotion, and orient that to your happiness.

You acknowledge yourself, the world acknowledges you. Simple. Go back to the drawing board.

From a social animal, businessman, leader and manager angle
If most people out there are dying inside because they are merely feeling neglected, feeling that the world is not acknowledging them, it provides a huge market that one can influence.
One level is to give them a platform as social media does to feel acknowledged and to feel relevant.
As a leader or a manager, acknowledging the good others do seems a great way to win undying loyalties - its not about money, its now about you.
As a marketer, a businessman, it is a core need that is required to be satisfied at all times in the human cycle. Is your product or service addressing that need?

Acknowledge your customer, colleague, employer - say what a good job they are doing (or better still show it) and then present your case. I read somewhere that waiters who touch their clients end up getting a significantly higher amount of tips. All they have done is to acknowledge that other person.

Conclusion
I am amazed how much we go about not acknowledging people as people. How many times do we look people in the eye, speak directly to them, acknowledge them and the good they have done - forget that last bit - how many times do we make them feel like they exist? If that is all it takes, why don't we? It does come back a bit to our not acknowledging ourselves of course. But we can sort this out this way or that.

Steps to acknowledge oneself or another self. Look into eyes directly. Use name as often as you can. Hold hand or touch or hug and make them (oneself, feel special). Say what good they have done. If its a business, see how you can use technology to'touch' people.
Looks like when we touch people, we seem to touch ourselves a bit.

I am already feeling better.

1 comment:

Rajendra said...

Touching. And probably true.