Cultivate B-Values: truth, beauty, goodness, and wholeness
Attend to and create more encounters with what Maslow called the Being-Values — qualities of existence rather than means to ends.
Why it works
Maslow distinguished Deficiency needs (D-needs) — met by external conditions — from Being needs (B-needs) — intrinsic qualities of existence like truth, beauty, justice, and wholeness. He argued that self-transcending people are motivated by B-Values rather than D-needs, and that this shift in motivational structure is what makes transcendence possible. Psychologically, B-Value orientation reduces the scarcity-competition anxiety of D-need motivation because B-Values are not zero-sum — truth and beauty are not diminished when shared.
How to do it
- List Maslow’s B-Values (truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness, aliveness, uniqueness, perfection, necessity, completion, justice, simplicity, richness, effortlessness, playfulness, self-sufficiency). Which three feel most alive to you?
- Ask: "Am I building a life in which I regularly encounter these values in their fullness?" Rate each 1–5.
- For your lowest-scoring B-Value, identify one way to increase your contact with it this week.
- Practice orienting from "what do I want to get?" to "what is genuinely here that is worth attending to?"
Evidence
Maslow’s B-Values are a theoretical construct from his later work. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation research (self-determination theory) provides the closest empirical parallel: intrinsic motivation predicts higher well-being and engagement than extrinsic motivation. (mechanistic)
B-Values as Maslow framed them are theoretical; empirical mapping between B-Values and measurable outcomes has not been conducted systematically.
Sources
- Maslow (1971), The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
- Deci & Ryan (2000), "Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation," American Psychologist
Common mistake
Treating B-Values as the same as intrinsic goals — the distinction Maslow is pointing to is more radical: B-Values are not goals to achieve but qualities of reality to attend to and honor.
Practice this with IX Coach
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More practices for Maslow’s Self-Transcendence, Made Practical
- Cultivate peak experiences deliberately
Seek and create conditions for the moments of profound aliveness Maslow called peak experiences.
- Identify and commit to a cause larger than personal gain
Find something worth giving your best effort to that benefits others beyond yourself.
- Practice reducing ego-centeredness without self-erasure
Develop the capacity to act fully while temporarily setting aside self-preoccupation.
- Cultivate oceanic or cosmic feeling through awe practices
Regularly seek encounters with what is vast, ancient, or radically beyond human scale.
- Practice service as a primary mode of engagement
Orient your daily choices around what you can give rather than what you can get.
- Use the hierarchy as a self-diagnostic, not a ladder
Identify which level of the hierarchy is currently most activated and address it directly rather than bypassing it.
Related concepts
- Man’s Search for Meaning, Made Practical
Logotherapy, the three sources of meaning, and the last of the human freedoms
- Meaning-Centered Therapy, Made Practical
Finding meaning amid suffering — the practices behind Breitbart’s palliative-care method
- Ikigai, Honestly Explained
The real concept, the diagram caveat, and practices that surface it
- Self-Determination Theory, Made Usable
The three needs that make motivation self-sustaining