The Difference Between ‘Want’ and ‘Need’
Growing up, we’re taught to communicate to those looking after us what we need to survive. Hungry? Ask for food. Dirty? Cry out of discomfort until we are changed. Bored? Beg for attention. Upset or scared? Ask for a cuddle.
As adults (or those in denial about the impending doom of adulting) we should now be good at working out the difference between the things we want vs those that we need. However, in this day and age, with advertising literally forced within our vision at every opportunity, it’s easy to get the two muddled up.
Learn The Difference: Needs vs Wants
We’re pretty good at working out what needs are. As an adult, you realise that you need a place to live, clothes to wear, and getting enough water and food to maintain your health and body. These are basic human needs and elements of basic survival.
It could be argued that everything else around these pivotal things are not essential to everyday living. That’s when the line blurs, and you begin to work out the difference between one person’s wants and another’s needs. Somebody might want to drink a coke because they enjoy the taste, but someone else might need to drink it in order to regulate their sugar levels.
In order to maintain a particular lifestyle, one might need a car to get to work, but may want to travel to work in their brand New Mercedes-Maybach in style.
Today, it’s hard to realise that though most people in western society have them, things like wi-fi, a smart phone and a TV are luxurious, they are not necessarily needs.
Deciding Which is Which
This is about working out how to budget on a personal income and prioritising personal wants. It can be as simple as writing things down and putting things into a little flowchart can make an easy visual.
Using a chart, list wants in one column, and needs in another, dividing the columns in half- top priorities on the top, and the bottom is the place to put the low priority expenses. They things that are needed or wanted less. This is a great way of making informed and deliberate decisions around what money is spent where, and the order in which they make the priority list.
Appreciate what you have
When you focus in on things that you don’t have or can’t afford to buy, it can become easy to overlook the things you already do have. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re deprived of something because you feel it is a necessity over a luxury.
You’ll soon become better at differentiating between the ‘want’ and ‘need’ and then possibly see that you have achieved much more than you might have once realised.
Take time to think about all the wonderful things you have done and achieved in your life – then decide what’s most important to you.
