Have you ever had a moment where you heard, read, or learned something that made everything in your life make sense? Revelations are magical! And I have had several of them in my life. But none more impactful then when I learned about Tony Robbin’s 6 Human Needs.
The 6 human needs were created by Tony Robbins and his business partner Chloe Madanes. After having hundreds of thousands of interventions with people from all over the world, Tony and Chloe realized that all human behavior is driven by the pursuit to fulfill one or more of these 6 human needs.
Every decision you have made in your life was due to the need to fill one or more of these needs. You just did not know it consciously – until now! For me – this was mind blowing!
Are you ready to get your mind blown too?
Here we go.
We have a need to meet ALL these needs, however, people value each of the needs differently. As I describe each of the 6 human needs to you – consider how important this need is in your life on a scale of 1-10 (1-Not important / 10 – very important). Remember, we all find a way to meet these needs at some level so the score can never be 0.
Certainty
Stability, safety, and support. The ability to avoid pain by being certain about things. If you have a high need for certainty (8-10) you may be perceived as controlling and/or as someone who does not like to try new things. Someone with a high need for certainty may find themselves feeling anxious in uncontrolled environments. They like to know what they can expect.
Variety
This is the need for stimulus and change. It is considered the opposite of certainty. People with a high need for variety like to take on new challenges without having to know all the rules or what the result will be.
Significance
Feeling important, special, and worthy of attention. Now before you say you do NOT have a need for significance remember – you do! It might be at a lower level (5 or under) but we all find a way to get all 6 of these needs met. Significance is not always a bad thing. Significance can drive people to do great things.
Love and Connection
Bonding, oneness, sharing, feeling a part of something.
Growth
Learning, changing, expanding, stretching, improving yourself.
Contribution
Giving of your time to others, serving, making a difference.
After you have used the 1-10 scale for each need, circle or write down your top two highest needs. Out of all the 6 human needs, you value these two the most. These are the two that drive most of your decisions. In addition to people valuing these needs differently, people also find ways to meet these needs differently. Some people use positive vehicles to get the needs met while others use negative ways.
Learning this about myself made SO many things clearer about decisions I have made in the past. My top two needs were significance and love and connection. Almost all the decisions I made were completely based on getting these two needs met – both good and bad. What a flipping breakthrough! I could see so clearly that having significance as my #1 top need was the reason why I felt so much frustration, anxiety, and fear when starting Traci Lynn Life Coaching 6 years ago. I was basing my success on how significant I felt and at the time my significance came from likes, comments, shares, followers, attention, clients, engagement, validation, etc. After having this revelation, I felt so much clarity but I also felt dirty, selfish, and egotistical at the same time.
But when you know better you do better.
I knew I must shift my focus away from significance and made contribution my #1 need and love and connection #2. After my shift, the frustration and anxiety lessened, and my business started to grow. With the energy coming from the right place – one of contribution and giving – I have felt the shift in how I show up for my business, my followers, and my clients.
Can you think of decisions you have made that were driven by one or more of these 6 human needs? What vehicle do you use to get these needs met? Do you need to make any shifts in the top 2 needs to have a life of more fulfilment?
I am going to be talking about this in greater detail live on my Traci Lynn Life Coaching Facebook page Thursday March 11th at 7:00pm CST. Come join us! It is totally free, you can ask any questions, and you can also pass along the invitation to anyone you think would benefit from this! Bring a pen and paper and get ready to have your own breakthrough!
Your Life Coach – Traci