Vehicle, Destination & Motivation

What percent of people reach their full potential in life or live the good life? Abraham Maslow said only about two percent! A good life is one that is directed towards maximizing your potential or self-actualization.

Are you on a firm path to maximizing your potential? If you continue to do what you are doing currently can you move up the hierarchy of needs (see picture) to the pinnacle need - self-actualization?

Abraham Maslow (Theory of Hierarchy of Needs - 1943) said that motivation is the result of a person's attempt at fulfilling five basic needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. Only when the basic needs are met a person will move up to the next level of need.

But, most people begin their life's journey by asking the wrong question.

When you were young, were you ever asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Think about it. Isn't that the most ridiculous question you can ask a child? Young or old when planning life most people start by asking the wrong questions. The real question to ask is "how do you want to lead your life?" and then figure out what path to take that will enable you to lead that life.

Think about how we plan our holidays or vacations..we start by asking ourselves where we want to go and what we want to do, right? We don’t start by asking ourselves what vehicle (plane, boat, train or car) we are going to use to get to our destination; we start by figuring out what that destination is!

Yet we do the exact opposite when planning our life. First we choose or someone else chooses the type of education we get in a college or university without giving any thought to what kind of life the careers in that field of education will help us create. Unfortunately for most people their education or their first job will choose the vehicle which will determine their lifestyle and their destination. By the time someone reaches their mid 20s to early 30s their internal GPS system tells them if they are on course or off course to reach their destination.

Here are few questions to ask if you want to live the good life:

1. What is your internal GPS telling you? Do you need a course correction?
2. Do you know your destination? Do you know exactly what you want out of life?
3. Are you in the right vehicle to reach your destination?
4. Are you enjoying your journey to maximizing your potential?
5. Do you justify your vehicle knowing that it cannot take you to your destination?

If you are not leading the good life, it’s never too late! I was not living the good life at the age of 27. I was just existing and operating in the first two levels of hierarchy of needs - paying bills and looking for safety in a job.

At the age of 27, I started to heed my internal GPS which was screaming for course correction. Without giving up my successful IT career, I found not only a vehicle but mentors who helped me climb the hierarchy of needs and put me on a path to reach my full potential.

People are curious to know what I do. Simply, I put people on a path to reach their full potential - I show them a vehicle and mentor them to live the good life.

If you are someone like me, its time be brutally honest and make the course correction necessary to put you on a path for maximizing your potential. In the end, its not the vehicle that matters (education, kind of work, etc) its the destination you want to reach and your journey to get there. Eventually, success of your life will be measured by how many people are better off because you lived!

Wish you the very best!

-Nanda Sringari

moble: +1.610.476.1156

Instagram; fcamnanda