In a previous article, we explored what it means to pursue balance in life as a management consultant. In this series of 3 articles, we will do a deep dive into this topic, drawing on Glasser’s Choice Theory and Reality Therapy (CTRT).
Consider this first article a primer on key CTRT concepts that will serve as the foundation of this series.
Redefining “Balance in Life”
In the previous article, we challenged the traditional notion of work-life balance, instead gesturing towards “attaining harmony in life by pursuing balance in career, relationships, personal interests, health, and spiritual fulfilment”. Notably, these categories are merely intended as illustrative examples rather than exhaustive ones.
To offer a more robust view — and satisfy framework-loving consultants — let me introduce Glasser’s framework of 5 basic human needs!
- Survival – Our primitive, physiological need to sustain life, associated with notions of safety, security, sustenance, health, and self-preservation.
- Love and Belonging – Our drive to be connected with others, associated with meaningful relationships, trust, cooperation, and connection.
- Power – Our desire for recognition, achievement, developing competence, making an impact, and exerting influence.
- Freedom – Our desire to assert our autonomy and choose from various possibilities, related to independence.
- Fun – Our thirst for pleasure, thrill, and adrenaline, related to laughter, exploration, enjoyment, and creativity.
Notably, this is not to be confused with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is crucially distinct and rooted in entirely different theoretical models despite some superficial similarities.
How do these basic needs relate to balance in life? Simply put, Glasser posits that we are always trying to meet these needs. Everything we do from showing up to work, going for a swim, or hosting a dinner party with friends are all ways in which we try to satisfy our 5 basic needs. Achieving balance in life, then, is all about meeting each of these needs.
How does work satisfy our needs?
One obvious question we might ask is: “how exactly does work satisfy our needs?” To adopt a response beloved by many consultants, “it truly does depend”.
To unpack what it depends on, we need to understand that each person has things that subjectively matter to them, and which increase the quality of their life. This is what CTRT refers to as your Quality World (QW) — a personal and often aspirational world that you create and re-create throughout life, comprising a “personal picture album” of positive relationships, treasured possessions, experiences, and core beliefs. When these pictures in your Quality World are satisfied or achieved, your needs are met.
Since we all treasure different things, we each have unique pictures in our Quality Worlds. This means that certain experiences might meet one person’s needs but not another’s. For example, you might love reading sci-fi novels while your friend finds them incredibly boring. In CTRT terms, the image of reading an exciting sci-fi novel is in your Quality World, but not in your friend’s. Therefore, doing so satisfies your needs. For example, your need for fun might be satisfied by imagining yourself as a character in a sci-fi universe, and your need for love and belonging might be satisfied as you bond with like-minded friends over your shared interest in sci-fi topics. At the same time, your friend might not satisfy any of their needs by reading the same novel.
Returning back to the question of how work satisfies an individual’s needs, this is a question that only an individual can answer for themselves! For example, work might meet an individual’s need for:
- Survival – the high salary provides financial security and stability
- Love and belonging – you enjoy bonding with your colleagues and building strong relationships with them that go beyond the workplace
- Power – you get to hone your problem solving skills and make a real impact on Fortune 500 companies
- Freedom – you are a trusted member of a team who gets the autonomy to choose how you approach broad, amorphous problems
- Fun – you enjoy deep-diving into all sorts of new topics and industries from project-to-project
Work — indeed everything you do — always meets at least one of your needs to some extent. If it didn’t, you simply wouldn’t be doing it! This might be difficult to accept, especially on rough days where all you can think about is quitting. However, there must be something holding you back from quitting — is it the high salary that you would struggle to earn in a different line of work? The friendships that you’ve cultivated with colleagues? The opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives? By identifying what is holding you back from leaving your current role, you can pinpoint which need is being met by your work. More often than not, work meets multiple needs at the same time.
The bottom line
We each have 5 basic needs — survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun — that we are always trying to satisfy by realising pictures in our Quality World.
While we can satisfy many of our needs through our work, highly-paid consultants who feel trapped in their current role by a pair of golden handcuffs are likely only satisfying their need for survival.
In the next article, we will unpack common frustrations at work and why different people might perceive a given situation completely differently.
Lucas Foo graduated from the University of Oxford with First Class Honours in Psychology, Philosophy, and Linguistics. He is a certified Choice Theory and Reality Therapy (CTRT) practitioner keen on creating real and positive impact.
Image: DALL-E
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