1) To be happy; 2) to have a feeling of importance; 3) to be loved; 4) to have a little variety. Six

basic needs are: 1) love and affection; 2) security; 3) creative expression; 4) new experience; 5)

recognition; 6) self-esteem.

Perhaps the most widely accepted category of human needs was presented by Abraham

Maslow (1970). Maslow thinks that before we can ‘blossom’ and grow toward selfactualization,

the top of the ladder, we progress through certain steps. His theory of the

stepladder, better known as ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’ might look something like this: 1)

physiological needs, 2) safety and security needs, 3) love and belonging needs, 4) self-esteem

needs, 5) self-actualization needs.

Maslow believes that there are certain survival needs that must be met before we can become

concerned with the satisfaction of other needs. These biological needs include food, water, and

air, which are essential to our physical well-being, primary needs because they keep us alive.

When our physiological needs have been satisfied, the safety needs are the next most important

step on the ladder. Safety and security needs include a reasonably orderly and predictable way of

life, a savings account, shelter, insurance policies, etc. If our physiological needs are satisfied

and our safety needs have been reasonably fulfilled, needs for love, affection, and belonging are

the next step on the ladder. Love and belonging needs drive us to seek meaningful relationships

with others. We seek acceptance, approval, and a feeling of belonging in our social relationships.

Companionship and friendship are very important in satisfying this need to love and be loved. If

people have their survival, safety, and affection needs met, they will develop a sense of

appreciation for themselves (esteem needs). This sense of appreciation may be nothing more

than the development of self-confidence, which strengthens our self-esteem—our self-worth. We

need to experience some degree of success to feel that we have achieved something worthwhile.

Unless we fulfill our need for self-worth, we feel inferior, weak, and worthless. The last step on

the ladder represents the fullest development of our potentialities. Self-actualization is the need

for self-fulfillment—to fulfill oneself as a creative, unique individual according to his or her own

innate potentialities. It has been said that we develop and use only about 10 to15 percent of our

potential mental ability. Therefore, only a small percentage of people achieve what they are

really capable of doing. There are degrees of achievement of self-actualization, however. One

person might feel that complete fulfillment is being the ideal mother. Another person might

satisfy this need by setting an occupational goal and reaching it. Actually, self-actualization is a

matter of interpretation, and we have right to decide what constitutes our satisfaction of this top

step on the ladder.

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I. Find in the Glossary the definitions of the key terms and give their Russian

equivalents.

II. Find in the text words which can be used as terms in other branches of science.

What do they mean?

III. Answer the following questions:

1. What are your basic wants?

2. Where are you on Maslow’s ladder?

3. How do you go about satisfying the needs and wants in your life?

Read the following text and guess the meaning of the key terms.

TEXT 3. WHY PLAN?

If you really want to take an active part in satisfying the needs and wants of your life, you

need a plan or an outline that will direct you toward your ultimate goal. The dictionary says a

goal is an aim or purpose - a plan. You wouldn’t think of going on a vacation without some

plans or goals for your trip. Otherwise, you might get lost. Are you going to play the game of life

without goals by moving from different periods of your life without any plans or any direction?

We might say that goals give purpose and meaning to our lives; they give us something

to aim for, something to achieve. Remember, the reason you make plans for your vacation is to

reach your destination and have a good time in the process. Achieving what we want out of life

is much like climbing to the top of a ladder. We do not leap to the top of the ladder; we have to

take a few steps at a time. After you reach the top, can you quit? No! Goals become selfextending.

We do not achieve a goal and suddenly feel comfortable and just quit. You don’t get

to your vacation destination and quit either. Rather, we achieve one goal and then find that

another fills its place.

It is your responsibility to build the road to your own enrichment; you must lay the

foundation. David Campbell (1974) in his book If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll

Probably End Up Somewhere Else, likens life to a never-ending pathway, which has many side

roads or paths in the form of options which confront us along that road; these side roads or paths

have gates which are open or closed to us. When we come to each new option, there are two

factors that determine whether we continue on the same path, or take a new direction: one is

credentials, and the second is motivation. If you have the credentials (such as education, training,

skills), you have an option available to you and may choose or not choose to take a new path. If

you do not have the credentials, the gate remains closed at that point even if you are extremely

motivated. In other words, no matter how much you may want that option, if you have not

prepared for it, it is not going to be available to you. Where will you be in five/ten/twenty years?

You may not know, but you probably have some dreams and ideas. Planning today will help you

to go where you want to go.

Because we live in a world of change, the fulfillment of our needs may vary from the

experiences we encounter. What do you want to achieve? It is important that you answer this

question. No goal is too insignificant if it contributes to your sense of achievement. It cannot be

small; only you can make it small. There are at least seven different kinds of goals: physical,

financial, spiritual, career, family, mental, social. You are more likely to accomplish personal

and internal goals that you set for yourself than if you strive to achieve goals others want you to

accomplish. Unless you really own your goals, you will lack the proper motivation to “climb to

the top of the ladder.” Without a doubt, the most constructive goals for you are those you have

decided on for yourself.

Start your goal setting by working on some short-range goals that are easily attainable. As

these are accomplished, you will gain more and more confidence to tackle more challenging

long-range goals. Because short-range goals are more likely to be within your control, start with

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goals covering days, weeks, or months, rather than years. Short-range goals will better ensure

success, and success is the greatest motivator of all.

If a goal is unrealistic and not attainable, it is not a goal, but purely fantasy and daydreaming.

They must represent a reasonable objective toward which you are willing and able to work.

Obviously, the higher the goal, the stronger is your motivation.

I. Find in the Glossary the definitions of the key terms and give their Russian

equivalents.

II. Find in the text words which can be used as terms in other branches of science.

What do they mean?

III. Answer the following questions:

1. What goals do you think about as you picture yourself five to ten years in the

future?

2. Discuss the statement: Each of us becomes what we think about.

Read the following text and guess the meaning of the key terms.

TEXT 4. CONTRIBUTORS TO SUCCESS

There are countless definitions of what success really is. Success has often been referred

to as the progressive realization of a worthwhile, predetermined personal goal. For example,

some people define success in terms of money and material possessions. Others may feel success

is found in personal relationships. What actually contributes to success?

A Sense of Direction. If we don’t know where we are going, we will certainly end up

elsewhere. We need to establish priorities and make choices. A philosophy of life - or rules for

living and values in life—is basic to the direction we choose. Successful people know the

direction in which they are moving, and why they are going there.

A Feeling of Self-Confidence. If we desire to be successful, a belief in our abilities and

our worth as a human being is extremely essential. Most of our actions, feelings, behaviour, and

even our abilities are consistent with the degree of self-confidence we have. Surely, we have all

experienced failures, as well as successes in life. However, if we allow our failures to rule our

life, we will never be able to realize our full potential. We are all imperfect. To be successful, we

must learn to accept that our blunders, as well as our successes, are a part of us. Our blunders

should only be remembered as guides to learning. You need the ability to fail. Tolerance for

failure and the ability to learn from it are very specific characteristics of any highly successful

person. Feelings of successful achievement are the greatest motivation for continued success.

We will never experience success unless we have confidence in ourselves.

A Healthy Mental Attitude. The one word that influences our life more than any other

is attitude. This word actually controls our environment and our entire world. Actually, our life

is what our thoughts make it. If we think happy thoughts, we will be happy. If we think

miserable thoughts, we will be miserable. If we think sickly thoughts, we will be ill. If we think

failure, we will certainly fail. Successful people succeed because they think they can attain their

goal. A healthy mental attitude means that we approach our problems and goals with a positive

attitude. A negative attitude defeats us before we even start to work on our goals. On the other

hand, a positive attitude enables us to take action toward facing our problems and obtaining our

goals. Through life - we tend to make choices to fail or succeed.

A Belief in Perseverance. In the game of life, you have to put something in before you can take

anything out. After all, isn’t this what you also have to do with your checking account?

Successful people itch for a lot in life, but they are willing to scratch for what they want.

Therefore, we must determine how much time we are willing to give and what sacrifices we are

willing to make towards the attainment of our goals. The magic word to success has been

referred to as work - working hard and long to accomplish goals. People with a true belief in

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perseverance work toward their goals when encouraged and work harder when discouraged. It is

very easy to give up, but much harder to continue.

An Understanding of Others. More than likely our goals will involve other people. As a matter

of fact, it is dangerous to make goals without carefully considering the effects they could have on

your family. Remember, you do have to work around and with these folks. Furthermore, you

want to take them with you down the road to your successes. It is important, therefore, that we

learn to understand what their needs are, how they feel, and how to interact with them.

I. Find in the Glossary the definitions of the key terms and give their Russian

equivalents.

II. Find in the text words which can be used as terms in other branches of

sciences. What do they mean?

III. Answer the following questions:

1. What contributes to success? What are your contributors to success?

2. Discuss the following statement ‘Success is failure turned inside out’.

3. Discuss the saying ‘Luck favours a prepared mind’.

Read the following text and guess the meaning of the key terms.

TEXT 5. THE TIME IN YOUR LIFE

“What, of all things in the worlds, is the longest and the shortest, the swiftest and the slowest,

the most neglected, and the most regretted, without which nothing can be done: TIME”

(Voltaire). Time is always with you - and you can lose it or use it- the choice is up to you.

However, sometimes we get up-tight about “time.” These frustrations of time are largely due to

your attitudes toward time. Many of these attitudes are based on false assumptions. For example,

you have been told that to be successful you must learn to manage your time. This is impossible.

You cannot manage time. It is frustrating to think you can manage something over which you

have absolutely no control. But you can learn to manage yourself. Another false assumption is

saying, “I don’t have time to do that”. Probably not so. You have the time. You just do not

choose to spend it in that manner. Or how about, “She has more time than I do.” Everybody has

the same amount of time. But everybody spends it doing different things by choice or habit.

Time management is really self-management. There are several ways of looking at exactly how

much time we have. We spend time doing the maintenance tasks of life-working, eating,

sleeping, and so on. We invest time in learning, creating or loving. These time “investments”

continue to pay dividends in personal satisfaction, career advancement, or fond memories.

Remember, you should be the master of time and not let it master you. Discovering your

timewasters is the key to managing yourself in relation to time. The word timewasters can be

defined to mean anything preventing you from achieving your objectives most effectively. Most

timewasters are selfgenerated. Common timewasters are as follows: procrastination (one of the

most common time management problems), personal disorganization, lack of planning, poor

communication, commuting and/or traffic delays, lack of self-discipline, not setting deadlines,

inability to say No!, watching TV, talking on the telephone, meetings, excessive errands,

attempting too much at once, leaving tasks unfinished, drop-in visitors.

Take a moment and reflect on this question: “What one thing could you do in your personal and

professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference

in your life? How much time are you spending in this area or on this activity? People who

accomplish the most do so not because they have more time, but because they use their time

more wisely. They know that planning and goal setting are the keys to successful time

management. Essence of effective time and life management is to organize and execute around

balanced priorities. Using time effectively is dependent on your daily identification of priorities

of the important things you have to do or want to do. You must decide what the important

objectives are in your life and then establish priorities every day in relation to these objectives.

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I. Find in the Glossary the definitions of the key terms and give their Russian

equivalents.

II. Find in the text words which can be used as the terms in other branches of

science.

III. Answer the following questions:

1. What is your greatest timewaster?

2. Discuss the list of the common timewasters given in the text. Which of these

timewasters create a problem for you?

Read the following text and guess the meaning of the key terms.

TEXT 6. CREATING HARMONY IN YOUR LIFE

The important areas in your life, to which you devote your time and energy, do not

exist in isolation but are very much like a symphony orchestra playing. Individual instruments

(like work) sound fine, but when combined into a symphony (your life), the effect on your whole

life is then multiplied. Could it be possible that you have not found a harmonious melody to play

with all of the important areas in your life? Could it be possible that you might have one

important “instrument” that has been given so much emphasis, that there is no way for the others

to be heard? Balance is important with our lives, as with a symphony orchestra.

Someone once said that each individual has a chair of life. This chair contains four legs,

each representing an extremely valuable part of our life. For example, the four legs might be: (1)

Vocation, (2) Family and friends, (3) Avocation - interests and hobbies, and (4) Spirituality. Our

chair of life is in balance – there is a harmonious melody in your life.

However, if one of the legs becomes longer or shorter then the others because of too

much time or too little time, we feel uncomfortable, stressed, and oftentimes dissatisfied. This is

the true picture of what goes on in our life when we either direct too little or too much time to the

important areas in our life. Something is “out of synch.” It’s most fulfilling to build a successful

career, but if you lose your spouse and family in the process, then, I think you have failed.

Success is so much more wonderful when you have someone to share it with. It’s no fun to come

home and count your money by yourself. The important thing is to learn to recognize when your

chair of life is getting out of balance and take immediate action to balance your time and energy

on all the important aspects of your life. Otherwise, you may lose a major portion of one or more

legs of your chair of life. When this happens, your whole life is out of balance.

The key to successful life planning is the willingness to take responsibility for ourselves.

In a life situation, we have three choices: change it, enjoy it and tolerate it, or leave it. To change

it, we must change our behaviour, goals, or circumstances. If we choose to enjoy it, we must

recognize that it is our choice to stay with it, for whatever set of reasons. Then, if we choose to

leave our life situation, we must find another environment for our energies.

Because goals give direction and purpose to our life, goal setting should be a continuous

activity throughout our lifetime. What happens in life planning is that we pause frequently to

reevaluate ourselves, our goals, and our performances. As we improve in the understanding of

ourselves, our wants, our needs, and our goals change. If we are careful in assessing our

potentials, needs, and wants, we will be able to set more realistic goals and keep our chair of life

in balance.

You can be happy and fulfilled, or miserable and stifled. You choose who you become.

We must be aware of the needs and wants that exist in each of us and look at the ways in which

we meet them. The better we understand ourselves, our motives, and our abilities, the more

readily we will react to opportunities for personal development.

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We must remember that our rewards in life are in exact proportion to our contribution—

our service. In essence, if we want a rich, full, and satisfying life, we must make a significant

number of contributions. Successful life planning means:1) know what you want, 2) know what

you are willing to give up to have what you want, 3) have a game plan, 4) go to work

consistently each day on your game plan.

I. Find in the Glossary the definitions of the key terms and give their

Russian equivalents.

II. Find in the text words which can be used as terms in other branches of

science. What do they mean?

III. Answer the following questions:

1. Why is a symphony orchestra compared with a person’s life?

2. Is the pursuit of a career worth losing the respect and admiration of

your family?

3. Are you in charge of the steering wheel of your life.

THEME DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What risks are you afraid of taking right now in your life?

2. What are you going to give up to have what you want?

3. What do you think are the basic needs and wants of human beings?

4. What does success mean to you?

5. What determines success in our society?

6. Diagram and discuss your chair of life. Is it in balance? If not, why?