Rebuilding Purpose and Motivation post military

Our sense of purpose and what motivates us to do what we do are other things that most of us inherently know, but few of us take the time to define in any great detail.?

Both purpose and motivation can generally be found in abundance within any military or first response organisation. During the training pipeline for these roles the motivation is to achieve the required standard and progress towards qualification and graduation. The sense of purpose is strengthened along the way. Be that to serve your country in a military capacity, or serve your community as a police officer, firefighter, intelligence officer, paramedic, or correctional officer, the purpose is one of contributing to something bigger than yourself, answering calls for help from the community, and perhaps even making the difference between life and death.

This sense of purpose is reflected in the mottos of such organisations, such as the LAPD’s “To Protect and To Serve” and “That Other’s May Live” in the instance of the US Air Forces’ Pararescuemen.?

As with all the psychological concepts discussed throughout my newsletters, there are many models of human motivation. The one that I find most relevant to the military and first responder communities, is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.?

As the name suggests, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is exactly that, a hierarchical list of human needs that, if all are met, can ultimately result in what Maslow termed self-actualisation (Maslow, 1943)[1]. Maslow’s Hierarchy is often represented diagrammatically as a pyramid (see Figure 1), with the base block being the basic physiological needs such as air, water, food, shelter, clothing, sleep etc.?

Once those basic needs are met, the considerations that form the next block of the pyramid are the safety needs and include personal safety and security, health, employment, and other basic resources.?

These two first two building blocks that form the base of the pyramid are considered the basic needs of a human and Maslow considered them the primary motivators for human behaviour. While it’s not impossible to progress upward in Maslow’s Hierarchy without the basic needs being met (during his incarceration, Nelson Mandela is a great example of someone who did) it certainly is difficult.?

Once the basic needs are fulfilled, which is the case for most living in contemporary developed-world societies, the next series of needs are belongingness and love needs, which are met through relationships with intimate partners and friends. Once these are established, Maslow proposed that the individual will be motivated by esteem needs, being the desire for prestige and feelings of accomplishment. Coupled together, the belongingness, love and esteem needs are referred to as the psychological needs of an individual, and if met can lead to a fulfilled life in those who don’t crave what Maslow referred to as “Self-actualisation”.?

Maslow hypothesised that even if all the basic and psychological needs are satisfied that a new restlessness will develop in most individuals unless they are doing what they are best fitted to do. Maslow referred to this as the need for self-actualisation, which is characterised by becoming the best version of oneself and reaching ones’ full potential. Maslow suggested that self-actualisers are typically creative, autonomous, objective individuals who are concerned about humanity and accepting of themselves and others (Maslow, 1943). ?

Maslow’s theory of self-actualisation falls into the category of what are known as eudemonic philosophies, which can be traced back to Aristotle’s (384-322 BCE) notion of eudemonia or being true to one’s inner demon (Peterson, 2005)[2]. Common among these philosophies is the premise that people should develop what’s best within themselves and then use those skills and talents for a greater good, particularly the welfare of other people or mankind as a whole (Peterson, 2005).?

Military, Law Enforcement, Fire services, Ambulance and other first response services are all organisations that promote individual excellence and exist to a large degree for the greater good of society. It therefore figures that many individuals who enter military or first responder roles are those who crave self-actualisation as defined by Maslow.?

Once indoctrinated into a military or first response organisation and established in a specific role a well-defined pathway to progress upwards in Maslow’s Hierarchy exists. The member is likely to be earning sufficient money to provide for their basic needs and that of their family, and usually have a decent degree of job security. Belongingness and esteem needs can be met by the professional satisfaction and respect earned from being a highly functioning team member, and the process of training and indoctrination into the organisation will facilitate the tribal sense of affiliation discussed in Chapter 4, helping to fulfil the psychological requirements of Maslow’s Hierarchy.?

Whether or not the individual has intimate relationships outside of their work environment, it is still likely that a significant degree of their friends will come from other members of their organisation they work closely with.?

Throughout a well-structured military or first responder career, a member will undergo ongoing professional development courses learning new skills, challenging themselves, and experiencing the accomplishment of progressing up the ranks and fulfilling their esteem needs as they do so. The opportunity to self-actualise by being all they can be in their work role is then available to them through the opportunity to use their skills in contribution towards a greater good and the service of others.?

With hindsight, I can see clearly that I was self-actualised in my role as a doctor with army special operations. I was earning plenty of money to provide for my own basic needs and that of my family, I had a tribal sense of belongingness with my work colleagues and a sense of prestige and accomplishment that came from using my skills in complex environments, regularly in life-or-death situations. I honestly felt that I was the very best version of myself and was doing what I had been put on the planet to do. In Maslow’s terms, I was self-actualised.?

There was just one catch that I hadn’t completely registered at the time. My self-actualisation was as a doctor with army special operations and not as an individual outside of that role. The second I took my uniform off I lost my sense of self-actualisation, my feelings of prestige and esteem, my sense of accomplishment, and a large chunk of my feelings of belongingness that had come from being part of that tribal in-group. Thankfully, my relationship with my wife and young family had stayed intact, allowing me to maintain a percentage of my psychological needs, but the rest was stripped away immediately upon my transition out of my military role. I had failed to realise the following truth:

Most of the prestige belongs to the job, not to you.?

Diagrammatically, what had occurred looked something like Figure 2.

I had been identity fused with my military role and the loss of that identity left me not really knowing who I was out of uniform. As previously mentioned, I had also spent 15-odd years bolstering my own military in-group identity by thinking less of the civilian out-group, and in the blink of an eye I had become a civilian again.?

As unsettling as all of this was for years post-transition, realising what had occurred through the lens of Maslow’s model was hugely instructive in rebuilding myself. It wasn’t easy, in fact it was tremendously difficult, however the principles were simple. I needed to rebuild the upper layers of my Maslow’s Hierarchy in new life domains. I needed to find a new tribe and seek esteem, prestige, and feelings of accomplishment elsewhere. I realised that it was only in doing this that I was ever going to experience self-actualisation again.?

Just as it took me years to reach the point of self-actualisation in my military role, I could expect it to take years to reach that point again in a new life endeavour. Just as I had tried on multiple identities in my initial adolescent period of identity crisis before I accomplished my military identity, I would need to try out different things to resolve my new period of identity crisis to move towards my new post-transition identity accomplishment.?

Ikigai

Another model that I have found useful to this discussion is the Japanese construct known as Ikigai [3]. The term comes from an amalgam of “iki”,meaning alive or life, and “gai”, meaning benefit or worth. Combined, Ikigai roughly refers to what gives our life worth, meaning, and purpose. Ikigai exists at the intersection of the following four things:

· ?What you love

· ?What the world needs

· ?What you can be paid for

· ?What you are good at

Ikigai is diagrammatically represented as Figure 3.

There are many parallels between ikigai and Maslow’s concept of self-actualisation. Once again, reflecting on my time as a doctor with army special operations, I consider that I had found my ikigai at the time.?

Many military members and first responders will be able to associate with the feeling of ikigai from some point in their career. Often it first occurs throughout the training pipeline and then continues well into their operational role with their organisation. During that period, they often have a love for the role, have become good at it, can clearly see the need for their skills in the world, and are taking home a paycheck every fortnight.?

Considering ikigai more deeply, it becomes evident that the four components that make it up are transient, therefore the experience of ikigai itself can also only ever be transient.?

What you love changes over time, sometimes in military and first responder roles the love of the job can be lost as cumulative exposures or career pressures increase. Individuals may no longer be as good at the role as they might once have been, perhaps due to physical injuries or the normal aging process taking its toll. What the world needs might shift with societal changes and technological developments such as artificial intelligence, which might lead to certain aspects of roles, or certain roles completely, becoming obsolete and therefore no longer something that pay a wage.?

If you are one of the lucky ones who found and maintained ikigai in your work role throughout your career leading up into transition, then that is fantastic. But you must then appreciate that ikigai will be lost in transition (parallel to the stripping of the top layers of Maslow’s Hierarchy).

If you’re like many military members and first responders, you may have found that either you never really hit a point of ikigai in your role, or more likely, you were once there but over time had fallen out of love with the role. This will have left you somewhere between the vocation and profession sections of the ikigai model. The world still needed what you were doing, you could still get paid for it, and you were good at it, you just didn’t love it any longer.?

Whether you found and kept ikigai throughout your career, found it then lost it, or never found it at all, the fact remains that post-transition you’re going to need to recreate some (and hopefully all) of the components of it. What you need to focus on depends on what stage in life you’re at when you transition.?

Transition prior to retirement age

If you’re transitioning prior to retirement age, then you will most likely need to find something new you can get paid for. Ideally that will be something that you love, but a good place to start searching is on the list of your professional qualifications and skills (what you’re good at) developed throughout your previous career. Map this against what the world needs and you’re starting to hone in on a new professional role. Remember to also consider your values in this equation and ideally search for roles that are aligned with your personal values.?

If you can find a new role that you happen to love then great, you just might be able to achieve a new state of ikigai. In the absence of that, the passion and mission areas of the ikigai diagram can provide guidance as to other things you can use to recreate a fulfilling life post-transition.

If your new work is more of a vocation or profession that’s fine, you can balance that out with things outside of work that you love and the world needs (missions) and things you love and that you’re good at (passions) to create a composite ikigai.?

A lot of transitioning military and first response members are looking to recapture the stimulus and satisfaction of their former role in their next job, but that often isn’t achievable. You don’t need to get everything from your work role, as long as you’re accomplishing all four of the key aspects of ikigai in some area of your life, you’re on the right track to progressing back up Maslow’s Hierarchy.?

Transition at retirement age

All going to plan, there will be less emphasis on the requirement to find something you can get paid if you’re transitioning at retirement age. That said, part time work can be a very fulfilling aspect of life in retirement, as can missions such as unpaid work as a volunteer. Perhaps you can use some of the unique skills you have acquired during your working life to contribute towards training or mentoring the next generation coming through in your former profession. Doing so can give a fantastic sense of self-worth and esteem and help to rebuild the psychological layers of your Maslow’s Hierarchy that were lost on retirement.?

Likewise, it’s important to find passions in your life. While the ikigai construct suggests that a passion exists at the intersection of what you love and what you’re good at, I would argue that you don’t need to particularly good at something to be passionate about it. You just need to be good enough. Joining hobby or sporting groups can be a great way to develop and express passions, make new friends, contribute to a sense of belongingness, and accomplishment as you improve your skills. Who knows, you might even find yourself a new tribe!

Transition due to medical or psychological reasons

This is likely to be the toughest scenario of all, especially if you have been forced out of a role that you had found ikigai and self-actualisation in. I’m the first to admit that I cannot personally empathise with this situation as I haven’t lived it. That said, I believe that the models of Maslow’s Hierarchy and ikigai are instructive in how to best rebuild yourself under these circumstances.?

It may be that you need to start rebuilding your Maslow’s Hierarchy from the very bottom. Hopefully, your old organisation has taken some responsibility for your physical or psychological situation, and you’re in receipt of some form of pension in acknowledgement of your service-related injuries. If this isn’t the case, then you need to do your very best to avoid slipping into a victim mentality and an external locus of control. Remember the Stoic wisdom of only focusing on what you can control, and invest your emotional energy on those things alone. Use the attributes that made you the highly functioning member of your previous tribe and claw your way back to meeting your basic needs in whatever way is possible. Once there, or in the instance that you are in receipt of a pension that allows you to financially meet your basic needs, it is critical to then pursue the higher levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy once more.?

I’m of the firm belief that:

?you cannot buy self-esteem.?

In Maslow’s Hierarchy, money only really allows you to fulfil your basic needs and in ikigai, it only contributes to one-quarter of the factors that give our life worth, meaning, and purpose. We need to actively seek out the others. Even if you are physically or psychologically limited by service-related injuries, you must seek out new friends and ideally a sense of tribe, and new avenues to feel accomplishment and prestige. Looking again at ikigai, these can be found in passions and missions. Even if you are in receipt of a full pension that might disincentivise or disallow paid work, and as difficult as it may be, you still need to strive for these things.?

Call to action: What factors are making up your Maslow’s Hierarchy?

First, consider the factors that contributed to the various layers of your Maslow’s Hierarchy prior to transition by completing the following diagram.?

Next, consider what your Maslow’s Hierarchy might look like post-transition by completing the following diagram.?

Call to Action: Finding (or re-finding) Post-transition Ikigai

Complete the following table listing the components of ikigai:

Using the ikigai model, start to make connections between the various lists looking for:

Passions: What you love and what you’re good (enough) at.?

Missions: What you love and what the world needs.?

Vocations: What the world needs and what you can get paid for.?

Professions: What you can get paid for and what you’re good at.?

Use this as a guide towards ideally finding a new ikigai (or composite ikigai), or at a minimum, finding a new vocation or profession to help meet your basic needs as the first step on your journey back up Maslow’s Hierarchy.?

Don’t expect to find a job or activities to immediately replace the stimulus and reward of your military or first responder role after transition. It’s likely that there will be a period of time when you feel unsettled no matter what you end up doing. A large part of this is due to the slowing of the pace of life when transition, which we’ll take a deep dive into in the next chapter.?

This Newsletter is an adaptation of a chapter from my new book "Sh*t I wished I knew before I discharged" which is available now through online book retailers such as Amazon Australia and international sites.?

As always, comments and questions are welcome. If you feel this newsletter might resonate with others in your community, please share it widely.?

Until next Friday, stay safe, and don’t forget to have some fun!

Cheers,

Dr Dan Pronk

References

[1] Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396.

[2] Peterson, C., Park, N. & Seligman, M.E.P. Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction: the full life versus the empty life. J Happiness Stud 6, 25–41 (2005).

[3] To read further on the concept of ikigai, check out Garcia, H. & Miralles, F. 2017, Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life, Huthinson Publishing Trade.?