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.