We Can Choose What Drives Us. But We Don’t.

Seeing our lives as being driven is not new to psychology. Freud mapped out his 5 stages of development, that not only propel a child’s development but can shape the adult’s. And Maslow became famous for his Hierarchy of Needs, which moves up from the biological to self-actualizing. As these authors point out, there are good and bad drivers, but each sets the pace, the tone of our lives. We can choose what drives us, but the challenge is that we don’t choose. Instead, we accept what we get, or get used to, and call it life. We can change that, but first, we need to know where we stand.