Out and About STYLE Mag Issue 2 Vol. 2

HACKING GRATITUDE
So first things first, what do we mean by gratitude?
Gratitude simply means thankfulness and gratefulness.
Most of us have a roof over our heads; we have good
health, we have beautiful families, have enough money
to put food on the table and enough to buy clothes for
ourselves and our family. Most people already have
more aside from these basic needs. Yet most of us are
not yet content. We always want more, we want to do
more, and achieve more, of course, you’re not alone.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs talks about five levels we
humans want to attain (in order of priority):
1. Physiological needs –
i.e. food, water, shelter, clothing etc
2. Safety needs – i.e. personal security,
employment, resources, health, property
3. Love and Belonging – i.e. friendship, intimacy,
family, sense of belonging
4. Esteem – i.e. respect, status, self-esteem,
recognition, strength and freedom
5. Self-actualisation – i.e. desire to be the most
that one can be
This has been taught in MBAs around the world for
decades and when I studied this, (many moons ago),
I could really connect with it, and it was almost like
a ‘to do’ list for me at first as I was young, ambitious
and wanted to achieve certain things in life, (another
topic for another time perhaps). I was also aware that
this model depicts a certain lifestyle that almost says:
it is ok to want more; it is ok to be greedy and never
be contented.
However, you quickly realise that this hierarchy
of needs is not the be-all and end-all. It’s a good
baseline to start with if you want it to be. So what
happens when you can’t relate to or agree with these
needs or wants (depending on which way you look
at it)? What happens when you achieve level 5 and
then what? What is next? After a little pondering and
a lot of soul searching, I came to the conclusion that
there is no magic formula for what is next or what
else; it all depends on you, on what your purpose
in life is, what is important to you, what difference
do you want to make in this world, what legacy do
you want to leave behind? This would, of course, be
different for different people as we all have different
maps of the world.
We are all wired to think that it is those ‘things’ that make
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