Pathwalking 60
Following my last couple of posts, I want to continue to examine the “six core human necessities”. As suggested by Tony Robbins, these are certainty, uncertainty, significance, love and connection, growth, and contribution.
Let’s take a closer look at significance (the need for feeling wanted and worthy), growth and contribution. All of these come from within, and are core to everything we need in order to walk the paths of our choosing.
Significance in particular is tricky. Why? Because often in order to feel significant, we turn to without. It is a need to feel significant that causes us to seek validation that the things we are doing are worthwhile; it is that need to feel significant that causes us to accept judgment from other people we might not normally accept.
But as with most things we need for our life, the important part of significance comes from within. It is up to me to FEEL significant. I have to choose if the validation or lack from others or the judgment or lack from others will have an effect on me or no.
So who decides whether or not I am significant? Who decides if my contributions to this world are significant or not? That would, of course, be me. Contrary to what religious leaders tell us, we are not weighed and measured by a “higher power” so much as we are our own worst critics. We choose to feel insignificant. Or in some instances, we choose to allow a feeling of insignificance dominate us.
Pathwalking is about choosing your own path. As such, clearly making this choice should give you a sense of significance. I choose this path of my own free will – and that feels right. It feels good. I am worthy of this path – and I feel wanted and worthy because I have chosen for myself. Significance.
Which leads to growth. Choosing to walk the path is all about growth. As you walk the path, with all its twists and turns and bumps and shifts and changes, you grow. I could easily argue that Pathwalking is actually about choosing to grow and change and develop ourselves as human beings.
Growth is probably the easiest thing to measure from within. I know best how I am growing emotionally, intellectually, physically. I know best what I am learning to enhance my growth as a person. And Pathwalking is very very much a part of that. Walking my own path is certainly a choice for growth.
And thus we reach contribution. One could argue that this is solely judged from without, and does not come from within. But as these are core needs of human beings, it boils down to feelings. And the question is, do I feel as though I am contributing to the world?
Contribution means different things to different people. For some it manifests as physical acts – making a donation to a charity here, dropping a coin in a cup there, volunteering at this place or that. For some it takes on a more esoteric bend – having a child, building a business, running for office. Some contribute by inventing new technologies, designing new buildings, cars and the like. For others, it takes on an even more unusual turn – like blogging and public journaling and writing and teaching.
For many it’s a combination of all or some of these. I, for example, volunteer my time in a couple different ways, work with a business to help it grow, teach medieval fencing, and I write and blog, too. In these ways I contribute to the world around me.
For some the contributions are small and personal. What we contribute might have an effect on our friends and family, and that is enough. For some, though, it is much grander, like inventors making things to better our lives, or politicians running for office.
Why is this a core necessity? Because we feel a need to leave our mark, so to speak. Even if you are not a student of history, I have no doubt there are historic figures, places, and events you can name off the top of your head. I have yet to meet someone who does not have at least SOME desire to be remembered by future generations – and it is through our contributions we believe that this is most likely to happen.
Unlike the paradox of certainty and uncertainty, significance, growth and contribution go hand in hand in hand. A feeling of significance will lead to education and growth which in turn will lead to greater contribution from a person who feels so complete. And all of this utterly lines up with why we choose Pathwalking.
Pathwalking is choosing how to live your own life. It is about finding and making your way in this world. And the more I work with this philosophy, the more I see how these six core human needs align with it rather perfectly. Pathwalking is a means to meet those core needs, and to control our life’s choices.
Do you feel significant? What do you do for your personal growth? How do you contribute to the world around you?
This is the sixtieth entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
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