Referring to discussed concept in the text earlier, Needs follow complex hierarchy, they don’t just move from basic to advanced, they also move up in their levels in each Need. To facilitate understanding of the same, below is a game with similar rules:
Similar to any game, this game has an Aim and few Rules.
Aim: To achieve as many points as possible
Rules: You need to stand near the start line and throw marbles in the hole with the following rules:
1. You need to decide which hole to aim at before throwing the marble
2. If the marble goes inside the hole, you get points mentioned in that level and if you miss you lose the same amount of points from your total score.
3. All the holes will be closed at the beginning except A1.
4. Other holes will open when you master your skills of putting marbles into A1, atleast 5 marbles.
5. On successfully putting 5 marbles in A1, two holes would open; B1 and A2.
6. The same rule of mastering skills at a hole with 5 marbles applies to all holes before they are opened.
7. For holes like B2, they will open only when both the holes below A2 and B1 are mastered by putting 5 marbles in each.
8. The game gets more complex at higher levels as the required no. of holes to be mastered are more and the risk is also higher. For example to open D3 one has to master all 11 holes below and even after it opens the risk is very high. Missing an attempt of putting a marble in it would cost 60 points, equivalent to 6 successful point gains at A1.
When one tries to gain more and more positive points, it is essential to meticulously balance between risk and skills. The same is the case with Human Decision Making, to carefully balance.
Here each hole refers to Needs, on achieving a Need positive Emotions (positive points) are gained and on not achieving negative Emotions are experienced (losing points in game). The only way to win this game is by using a plan and process that works (realistic Individual theory). Losing points (experiencing negative Emotions) doesn’t stop the game, one has to accept the loss and give time to understand what would be a more practical approach (managing Emotions) and use the revised approach to give it another shot and gain more points (improve Know-How and Individual theory making it more practical).
A small note here to identify different levels of same Need. Looking at our experiences and talking about simple Need of hunger, it grows from any food to specific taste to specific ingredients to specific method of growing/raising ingredients and so on and on and on. Below is a small exercise to identify your personal levels of same Need:
