Seven Words
Khalil Gibran once said that people would never understand one another unless language is reduced to seven words. What would your seven words be?
Before I share my seven words with you, I want to tell you a bit about Khalil Gibran. He was born in Lebanon in 1883 and died in New York City at the age of 48 from cirrhosis of the liver due to severe alcoholism. Gibran is the third best-selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Laozi. His best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of twenty-six essays. Since first being published in 1923, The Prophet has never been out of print. If you haven’t read the book, do. If you have read it, reread it.
A Foundation to Build On
As I was pondering this question, I remembered Tony Robbins Six Human Needs. Tony identified six basic human needs with the belief that everyone is, or can be motivated by fulfilling these needs.
Here they are:
Need 1: Certainty/Comfort
Need 2: Uncertainty/Variety
Need 3: Significance
Need 4: Love & Connection
Need 5: Growth
Need 6: Contribution
Every day we are reflexively determined to meet these needs. When these requirements are met at a high level, our degree satisfaction and fulfillment in our lives is abundant. If these needs are met at a low level, we will experience life as being unsatisfactory and disappointing. I think that we can agree that Tony’s philosophy of what lies at the root of human aspiration and the extent to which these needs are met make a difference
