“What you do is just a means to a need or a basic human emotion.”

When listening to Seth Godin visiting the good life project, many notable things were said. I highly encourage you to listen to it you haven’t. One of the things I snapped up was this, by Seth:

“What you do is just a means to a need or a basic human emotion.”

As a matter of fact, all the things we do every single day is just that, a means to a need or a basic human emotion. That can scare some and make some motivated. Either way, what we do is always primed towards reaching one or both of those things.

What this means in practice is that when we decide to do things, or when we consider the outcomes of things we want to do, what we’re really considering is what feeling or need might or might not be fulfilled by the task. Of course, that’s a utopia view of humans as mindful zen masters. We’re not, most of the time, consciously choosing with these thoughts in mind. When we do, we need to be specific about it, so that we can consider it a goal to be achieved. Seth moved on and later said this in the same episode:

“What is it that you wanted when you went on this path?”

That’s why we need to be specific, because if we’re not, we’ll fail to answer the question above. That’s when we loose track of where and who we are in life. That’s something I push a lot in conversations with friends, as many of them make bold decisions in their life right now.

To focus on the needs you have, or what emotions you’re trying to achieve in whom is immensely difficult. That’s part of why making bold decisions is hard. Our biology is trying to protect us from certain feelings, and we are repeatedly told that we have certain needs which we might not have.

What one can do facing tough decisions is to think of this. It’s most probably, or quite unprobably rather, the only way to go about things. But being aware of your needs and your feelings is always going to be useful.