How often are we defining things as needs when they are really wants and what does that ultimately mean in our psyche?
A need is something required, a want is something desired.
We say all the time that we "need" this or that. Often the truth is we only want it. Need is greater than desire. To need something it must be required for the defined purpose.
I need food to eat because it keeps me alive.
I need water to drink because it keeps me alive.
I need warmth because it keeps me alive.
These are needs.
I want this type of food as my choice of nourishment because I like something about it better than other food.
I want water from that place because it's cleaner than other water.
I want a coat to stay warm with because it's warmer than this shirt.
These are wants.
It's all to common today for people to claim they need things that really just want. Needs and wants have been mixed up like this in the mind of human for a very long time.
Yet knowing the difference can be quite beneficial.
When you truly know the difference between wants and needs you gain a power. This unnamed power gives you the ability to streamline anything that you do.
When we first speak of wants and needs we tend to gravitate toward the actual needs of a human. Survival needs. Really anything outside of that would be a want anyway.
However, a want can create a need as well.
Because of "if".
"If I want this, I need that."
This need being essentially an artificial need, it is a need nonetheless.
Though this need is parented by a want, it will compel a person similar to a raw need like food. It would also be true that this "need", being shrouded by a want, is merely a want itself.
This "need" is required "if" we mean to complete the want. So it's tentative.
If you wish to be alive then you have needs that must be met.
If you wish to be healthy there are needs to be met.
If you wish to create this or that you have needs that must be met.
When we strip it back, a need will be required and a want will not be required, it will be wanted/desired.
When we talk about being alive then food, water and warmth pop up.
When we talk about business then money, customers and a product pop up.
With every process including life itself there are wants and there are needs....
we are to perform that process.
When we can strip back any process, including life itself, to its bare needs we can vastly streamline it.
With any given process including life itself, if you know the needs of it, you can start from there. At the needs. If you build from the needs outward you can build the most streamline process. Only considering wants after you've created a base design from knowing the needs.
Knowing and providing the needs of a process gives your process solid foundation because the needs have been met. From any solid foundation you can build more.
We all want things. Continue to want things.
Build the needs first so you can relax more and go for the wants.
Often, because all needs are met, more creativity about the process will generate. Simply due to the feeling of having it covered.
Also, once you've clearly defined the needs you know what the real "bare bones" version of it looks like because you learned to define what was actually required from what was only desired.
Always remember, "bare bones" may be bare, and skeletal... but they show a working model. A model that can easily be added to.
The closer to bare bones any project is, the lighter it is and more streamline.
As we begin adding the wants of the project to it, it becomes more us or closer to what we ultimately want. It also becomes heavier as well. Each of those additions adds more weight you could say to the project. It begins to lose the streamline it had from being bare bones.
The sweet spot seems to be keeping the process light enough to feel free and deep enough that the process is really what we want.
So figure out the needs of a given project or process first so you're not swimming in the wants wondering where to put your feet.
Need vs Want
by Michael David
Co-founder of #thealliance and loyal since before the egg.
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