When Growth Plateaus, Purpose Prevails – Insights by Maninder Singh Hira

Everything in life must have a “Purpose”

These 3 theories kept coming in front of me recently and I realised, while all the three talk about different aspects, there is a very strong correlation between them.

The Maslow’s theory of life talks about the stages through which humans progress as they grow and eventually reach Self Actualisation.

In a similar way, While the organisation has to provide opportunities and support to its employees in all the stages of growth and evolution, this approach is mostly reactive towards the human (employees’) psychology. As employees, as we grow higher (In role, compensation, hierarchy), our thrust reduces unless there is a stimulus from the next stage, until we understand the sense of purpose in one’s career. This comparison of Maslow’s hierarchy and hierarchy of team building was influenced by Justin Wright in one of his posts and helped me extend the comparison further and present a different correlation.

The Easterlin Paradox also presents a similar philosophy - that happiness doesn’t grow after a point even if the money you possess grows.

This is the reinforcement of the idea that once your basic, physiological and family needs are fulfilled, money does not help in elevating happiness further.

It’s this point, where “The Sense of Society” takes over. Unless you have a purpose in life, which in this case is mostly the sense of society (respect from society, ability to do things that impacts larger society, self-image, etc.), the happiness index doesn’t grow. It all comes down to “the Purpose”.