Contribution

My kids complain about chores. It drives me crazy! Until I remember that I also complain about chores. I wish I had more time to myself. I wish I could clean my kitchen like the fairies on Sleeping Beauty. I wish the weeds would pull themselves. But what good does that do since I don’t have magic and weeds only know how to grow?

Alfred Adler, Austrian medical doctor and psychotherapist, pioneered a psychology that emphasized the human need and ability to create social change and impact. His compelling research and studies showed that after basic physical needs are met (clothing, food, shelter) that the next greatest human needs are belonging and significance.

So, although our primitive, survival brain persuades us to expend the least amount of energy possible and to seek maximum pleasure, our higher level thinking brain (arrival brain) knows that making sacrifices for the sake of contributing to our family and community helps us fill some of our greatest needs, belonging and significance.