Universal human needs

Go ahead and hate me and discredit everything I say. I like self help crap. There I said it. I think they're valuable. A lot of people make fun of them and the faces to the books and seminars are pretty easy to make fun of. But I like it. I think there is value in trying to expand your horizons about yourself and to attempt to learn something about that special person that looks at you in the mirror each day.

Because the names associated with these self help books sometimes immediately turn people off, I want you to forget about them. I'll just steal their ideas and then you can associate my face with the knowledge, because I know that my image can only invoke awesome vibes and rad feelings.

Now let me get inside your head right now and break it down for you. If you want to enjoy anything in life to the maximum, fullest, and totally all the way-ness then you need to familiarize yourself with the 6 greatest human needs. Let me just spit them out for you.

1. Certainty
2. Variety
3. Community
4. individualism
5. Growth
6. contribution

Include all six into your daily activity and you will be stoked on life. You're gonna say, "Duke you are a pretty cool dude, thanks for being you. There's no way I would have heard this from anyone else."

Let's break it down.

1. Certainty

Everyone has a need, an inner need, to know that some things in life are certain. I have a home to go to. I have food to eat. I have clothes to wear. And then for the luxury problem people: I need a cell phone that's fully charged and receives email. I need my WTF podcast, which by the way is only coming out on Monday for the last two weeks!!! What the fuck!!!! I need to be certain that the podcast comes out every Monday and Thursday and when you fuckers change things a little bit of my life is thrown off. I need certainty.

2. Variety

Notice that each need is paradoxically opposite of the last. Variety, change, something different, these are the opposite of certainty. We have a need to be surprised. We need some change, some flavor for our fare. Spice it up. We can't be bored with nothing new ever, so variety is a need.

I already feel my self half assing this writing but fuck you for reading this blog.

3. Community

We all want to be a part of. We want to be in the cool group, or just any group. A place where we are accepted by our fellows. Some people have church, some people have AA, book groups, chess groups, gangs, sewing groups (Stitch and bitch), surfers, nerds, jocks, you know what I'm talking about. A place where everyone knows your name and their always glad you came.

4. Individualism

What's the opposite of the group? Individualism. You guessed it, once we're in the group we want to stand out from the group. "We're not like all these people, we're special." Everyone has a need to express something unique about them. This is my Deepak voice in my head which talks about dharma. We all have something completely unique to express, it's our job to cultivate it and express it.

On a side note I think our society has gone way too far into being a part of the group. It's like society says, "Get into your cubicle, keep your head down and ignore the feelings inside. Everyone else is doing it." Doesn't it seem like everyone is becoming the same? Our world is becoming smaller with the internet, everyone has jobs they hate, and we all love starbucks.

How much better would the world be if we were encouraged at a young age to look within ourselves to find out what we are good at. What we enjoy doing. What if we were encourage to do what we truly feel we should be doing and each person was inwardly fulfilled by utilizing his unique talent.

Ok I'm back from dreamland. Just worry about yourself Duke.

5. Growth

If we don't grow it's not good. How smart is that sentence? We need to push ourselves if we are going to truly quench that thirst in our bellies that says, "I want to learn." Or you can just make that feeling go away by overeating. Have you seen any fat people in this country? I don't want to grow that we. Having an open mind is important. If you've learned it all then you become right. When you become right other people become wrong, when other people are wrong then it's time to go to war.

I'm solving the world's problems in this blog. Keep an open mind, learn something new, push yourself and you will feel good. It's all about feeling high. That's what everyone wants. Some people smoke a joint, some people pick up a drink, other people pick up a drunk. That shit doesn't last.

The road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, he says that maturity is delayed gratification. It takes work to exercise and the results aren't instant. Ice cream tastes great now.

I remember when my mentor taught me how to surf style skateboard down the hills of San Francisco with the unborn Buddha mind. Going down is fun but he taught me how to enjoy walking up. I think that is some growth we can all use, learning how to enjoy walking up.

6. Contribution

We can't just take, for the full stoney high to take place we have also got to give. It's the final need and most important. This is a tricky one because some people try to help and it ends up hurting. Maybe you can't help unless you are truly embodying the previous 5. The best help is by example. We need more examples of greatness not more midlevel power trippers telling us what to do. So reach deep inside your self and start helping people by becoming that best that were meant to be.

Now that I've solved the problems of humanity I'm going to work on my podcast, Duke's World.

Overandout