PART I – Introduction

There's no need to get your hopes up that this post (or the ones that will follow it) will be interesting. Just warnin' ya.

But anyway, this is why you do what you do, whether you know it or not.

As human beings, we have two powerful overriding needs that are present at some level in nearly everything we do. Satisfying these needs is the primary motivator of human behavior.

They are:
1) Need for Security (ie, safety, survival)
2) Need for Significance (meaning, purpose)

These needs occasionally conflict, and may be temporarily overridden by other desires – we seek adventure, stimulation, power; we enjoy admiration, beauty, sensual pleasure; we feel greed, hunger, jealousy, lust, pride, anger, love, compassion, etc. But nothing else so completely and reliably drives – and predicts – our actions and our attitudes as our quest for Security and Significance.

Which may be an earthshaking revelation, or not – but the *way* in which most of our behaviour ties back to these two things is interesting to me.