Tony Robbins has identified six basic human needs and believes everyone is—or can be—motivated by their desire to fulfill these needs.

For your spouse/partner

6 human needs for your children

You may want to consider the 6 human needs when thinking about developing your relationship with your spouse, partner or children.

1. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for love. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about.
2. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is no ABSOLUTE certainty, but we want certainty the car will start, the water will flow from the tap when we turn it on and the currency we use will hold its value.
3. Uncertainty/Variety. At the same time we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough UNcertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.
4. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. I can imagine no worse a death than to think my life didn't matter.
5. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value—to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us.
6. Growth. There could be some people who say they don't want to grow, but I think they're simply fearful of doing so—or perhaps NOT doing so. To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it's there.

Tony Robbins discusses (TEDTalks) the "invisible forces" that make us do what we do -- and high-fives Al Gore in the front row.


TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts.