Maslow's hierarchy of needs to start, but to extend on more modern meaning, your psychological needs are quite important given most people have their basic need

Maslow's hierarchy of needs to start, but to extend on more modern meaning, your psychological needs are quite important given most people have their basic needs met. There's a popular self-determination theory to explain this further. i.e. Autonomy, competence, relatedness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory One of the better books on this topic is "Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization" by Scott Barry Kaufman Here's a piece I wrote based on that book: Think of your life as a sailboat. The hull protects us from the waves and keeps us safe. The sail allows us to explore and adapt to our environment. However, to get anywhere, we must open our sail to the world. Without that, we're stuck in harbor. As we set out in the world in the many different directions we each may take in life. We are all sailing into the unknown of the sea together. So while a ship in harbor is safe, that's not what ships are built for. Even though you're alone in your boat, it's nice to see other lights along the way.