[Neurons] 2022 Neurons #46 GETTING THERE/ BEING THERE

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #46

November 7, 2022

Values Series #4

 

GETTING THERE/ BEING THERE

Instrumental / End Values

 

Here is a basic distinction about values: We have both instrumental values
(means values) and we have end values.  When what you value is a means to an
end then you have something that is instrumental.  It works like an
instrument in that it enables you to achieve an end-result that you want.
Actually, this is the kind of value that we are all most familiar with.
That's because everyday that you have to cope in order to take care of your
many driving needs (e.g., your need for food, water, oxygen, shelter, money,
etc.), you are seeking an instrumental value that will enable you to achieve
the end-result-surviving, living, well-being, not-dying, not-starving, not
becoming deficient and desperate.

 

This is true for the first four levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (e.g.,
survival, safety, belonging, and social value).  And this is what takes us a
good part of our early teenage and adult years to learn and to attain.  That
is, we develop a life-style by which we can make a living, figure out how to
stabilize our lives (safety and security), get along well with others (love
and affection, attachment), and attain a place of recognition, dignity, and
esteem socially.  So until you have established a solid lifestyle and turn
your coping abilities into automatic programs, that's what you focus on-the
instrumental values.

 

Then what?  What comes after establishing the successful life habits so that
you take care of all of the lower deficiency needs (the D-needs)?  These
socio-biological needs comprise your innate "motivation" system-moving you,
driving you, urging you to gratify them truly and adequately.  Doing that
also is a basic definition of health, well-being, and succeeding as a
person.  But that's not all there is.  There is much more.

 

All of the instrumental values that you establish for taking care of and
coping with your basic socio-biological needs, your animal needs describes
what you need to get there.  But getting there is not the purpose of life.
Yes, gratifying the lower needs will give you relief.  It will give you a
basic sense of confidence in yourself and others.  It will give you the
thousands of pleasures that come along with breathing, eating, drinking,
sleeping, feeling safety, love and affection, respect and dignity.  But all
of that is just getting there.

 

What is next?  After you get there, then what?  And what is there?  "There"
is where a whole other range of needs and drives kick in.  Actually they
kick in right from the start, but because the lower needs are prepotent,
they take precedence over the higher needs (the B-needs).  And they can
blind us to the ultimate needs.  That's the need to be human.  You and I
need to truly and adequately gratify the D-needs in order to really be ready
for the Being-needs.  As the being needs come on line-it's critical to
recognize that there do not operate by the same mechanisms as the lower
needs.  The B-needs are not instrumental needs.

 

Instead, the B-needs are being needs and end-values-they are valuable and
pleasurable in and of themselves and for their own sake.  Instrumental needs
get you there by taking care of your foundation-what you need to be health
and well.  But they are not the purpose of life.  That's the role of the
B-needs.  Instrumental needs drive you to cope, to gratify them, and when
you do-they go away.  Amazing!  They vanish.  The drive, the motivation, the
energy, and the urge of the lower needs disappear.  The more you satisfy
them, the less they drive you.  As Maslow quoted, "The problem with eating
is it kills your appetite."

 

The mechanism that drives the D-needs operates from a certain pattern, the
pattern of "the more, the less."  The more you gratify truly and adequately,
the less motivation they provide.  Their motivational energy runs out.  Not
so with the B-needs.  They operate from a different pattern, a pattern of
"the more, the more."  The more you gratify the need for knowledge, meaning,
love, beauty, music, order, excellence, contribution, justice, equality,
etc., the more your capacity for it grows and the more you want it.  The
motivational energy amplifies.  You become more passionate, not less.  You
become more and more human.

 

It is in the Being-realm where you are being there.  Now the striving to get
there ends.  Now a new motivation arises-being, being fully human.  Now you
engage in living your passion but not because of what you get from it.
Getting is over; now is the time for being.  Now is the time for living.
Now is the time to express yourself, your potentials.

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

(970) 523-7877

drhall at acsol.net  

 

Meta-Therapy book is now available as a PDF on "The shop" and a book you can
order.  See the special offering for it that was sent out a few days ago.



 

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