The holidays are a great time to dig in to what it is humans really want, as opposed to what we or others think we do. If we knew the answer, we'd know exactly how to get what would satisfy us. How big would that be?
For most of human history, the answer to that question has been a gray area that peers and marketers have happily filled in for us, creating needs where there weren't any for designer togas or shoes with blinking lights in them. Luckily, we live in a time when some very sharp minds have deciphered the correct motivational wiring and pinpointed what it is we need to be happy.
THE GPS OF SATISFACTION
Researchers Edward Deci and Richard Ryan of the University of Rochester have led the way, with a framework that points the way beyond gifts to what it is we really need, as opposed to desire. Self-determination theory, as it is known, is a veritable GPS to fulfillment, decoding our innermost longings and linking the world of science and spirit. It has been vetted by hundreds of scientists in more than a dozen cultures and is key to work-life balance and the effectiveness that leads to productivity.
No longer do you have to rely on guesswork to know what you need to feel satisfied. No longer do you have to have expectations that constantly disappoint. No longer do you have to put your life on hold while you wait for some external ship to come in. You can live more fully than you ever imagined when you finally know what it is you're living for.
Deci and Ryan found that at the root of human aspiration, there are three core psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (the need for social connection and intimacy). You need to feel autonomous, that you are freely choosing things in your life and are not being controlled. You have to feel effective and competent, doing things you initiate and that make you stretch. And you have to have close relationships with others to satisfy your social mandate.
Think about all the flailing we have to go through to find what fills us up. Now there's a roadmap. Satisfy your three core needs, and you'll be happy. You can have all the external success in the world, but you'll remain unfulfilled if even one of the core needs is unaddressed.
EXPECT NO PAYOFF AND YOU GET ONE
The catch is that you can only satisfy these needs through intrinsic motivation, the reverse of the motivational approach we're all raised with—external motivation, doing things for external approval. With intrinsic motivation, you seek no payoff, only the inherent interest of the activity itself—for learning, fun, growth. Do it just to do it, and you'll get a whopping internal reward in the form of the lasting version of happiness, gratification.
This is the unconditional path about which the sages have tried to clue us in, from Aristotle's idea of living well through lifelong learning, a reward in and of itself, to the Buddhist concept of right intention and the Taoist notion of acting in line with your authentic nature.
You must be in full alignment with your true self and values, while allowing the three core needs to work as your homing device.
"When people are oriented to goals of doing what they choose, growing as a person or goals for having good relationships, they experience higher levels of the basic psychological needs," says Tim Kasser, of Knox College, a leading researcher in the psychology of motivation.
That's not the training we get, of course. We're taught to go for the payoff. Everything has to get us somewhere socially, financially, emotionally. We're like trained capuchins, waiting for our peanuts after each task.
STOP THE PAY, STOP THE PLAY
Deci showed in one experiment how external rewards sabotage us. Subjects were asked to solve a puzzle in an exercise in which some got paid while others didn't. The ones who received no money kept playing with the puzzle after the teacher left the room at a strategic moment, while the financially motivated had no interest playing unless they got paid for it. "Stop the pay, stop the play," Deci summed it up later. His work and those of many others have documented that we learn more, remember it longer, are more interested in what we're doing, and are more satisfied when we act for intrinsic goals.
Intrinsic goals on the job include excellence, service, learning, challenge, and craft. On the life side, you can't get more autonomous than choosing what you want to do in your free time. Social opportunities, softball games, creative outlets and vacations can get shelved if we use the external goal mode: where's this going to get me? How can I be advanced?
The core needs tell us we're waiting in vain when we expect other people, things, and status to make us happy, and that we are the ones who must make our lives fulfilled through self-determined choices. Your core isn't satisfied by thinking or spectating but by directly participating in life's meaningful experiences.
The need for autonomy comes from a desire to feel that you are the author of your own script. When you feel that your activities are self-chosen, there's a sense of self-determination and freedom, which brings gratification. You've moved forward.
CORE COMPETENCE
The need to feel effective is essential to self-worth, but you can only satisfy your need to feel competent by doing things you initiate; it has to be coupled with autonomy. You can be effective on an assembly line, but you won't satisfy your competence need, because the activity is not autonomous. Learning a new skill is one of the best ways to activate competence. In one study, first-time whitewater canoeists felt a surge of competence as they handled new risks.
The third core need, relatedness, is a well-documented route to increased positive mood, better health, and a longer life. You can't satisfy your need for relatedness by networking, since it won't produce the satisfaction that comes from close personal relationships. Your core needs are very smart. They know when they're not getting the real intrinsic deal.
The findings of Deci, Ryan and their colleagues have yanked us out of the Dark Ages of our unknown needs. Their data lights the way forward for you to become who you are, as Alan Watts once put it. The key to the meaningful and fulfilling life you want is acting from intrinsic goals that reflect your inner compass—learning, fun, challenge, growth, community, excellence. It's tricky, since external metrics are so instinctual, but you can do it.
Act for the sake of it, and you are at the center of full engagement in the most rewarding life possible, one that gratifies your deepest longings. There are no barriers to your attention and involvement, no agendas to get in the way of the good stuff. You have arrived at the place where the chief ingredients of optimal living meet: experience, intrinsic motivation, and the riveting moment of now.