The Circle of Connection

Evolving an enduring model

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy (1954) provided an invaluable map for understanding motivation to satisfy our human needs. Here’s his model.

Maslow prioritized the bottom four, although he admitted they didn’t need to be fulfilled 100% before proceeding up to the growth needs. I’d go further: why arrange these as a hierarchy at all? Yes, the physical needs are more urgent - food, shelter, security, etc. - but it’s fair to suggest that we (humans) are now suffering from a chronic deficiency of what Maslow called Self Actualization and what I would simply call knowing ourselves. This now seems at least as (concurrently) important.

What if prioritizing deficiency needs over growth needs was accurate 70 years ago, but not today? How about this innovation:

All these motivators are now woven together and simultaneously active. Since this is a circle, that’s what I would call it. And since all these needs are connected, my name for this model (drum roll) is The Circle of Connection. But this is just a first step in the lab. Continuing to experiment, I arrive at a further insight: what if self-actualization is actually the primary motivator and all the others are in service to this priority? That would change the model.

Of course, the underlying question this model pivots on is the concept of self. What is self-actualization? In some philosophical circles self is presented both with a small “s” to denote personal identity and a big “S” when referring to collective identity. Enlightenment occurs when the small self and the big Self are experienced as being One. But what if that is another outdated theory?

Imagine Self as the persistent, eternal reality that cannot be sought and found in space over time but can only be experienced in the timeless moment through choice. “I am that I am,” the Bible instructed. No qualifiers, just I am that I am. Assuming this identity, even if it means faking it for the moment (because we might not feel that saintly), we experience a profound paradigm shift relative to motivation, no, more than a shift - a reversal.

Another Biblical reference comes to mind to explain this, my favorite verse: “The Lord is my sheperd, I shall not want.” Ironically, modern translations read: “The Lord is my sheperd, I have everything that I need.”

At first glance these seem to say the same thing. Far from it. “I shall not want” describes a state of desireless-ness, while “I have everything that I need” describes satiation. A transcendent state beyond material desires vs a material state where all desires are fulfilled.

Those who meditate regularly and have deepened their spiritual practice over many years understand the profound difference. Being Self is fulfilling. Period. In that transcendent experience, which lingers longer and longer with practice until it becomes home, desire for material experiences decreases. It’s still fun - eating chocolate ice cream, enjoying a good movie, getting air on a mogul - but it’s no substitute for the fundamental fulfillment of being Self.

This changes motivation entirely. Now we are no longer motivated to get things, we are simply deepening our experience of Self. We can attend to material matters responsibly without expecting that anything from “out there” will give us the satisfaction we can only find in that connected union.

I greet you in this identity, this space, this timeless moment where we understand that our greatest contribution is to stay present right here and center an environment that invites everyone and everything in our proximity - geographically and throughout the quantum “landscape” - to let go of the search, to give up trying to get what we don’t have, and to enjoy who we are.

Like a sun, we radiate life giving power, and our environment lights up. If there is darkness in the world… and there certainly is, here’s the answer. As Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” I doubt he was suggesting that he was the only One.