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

1. 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?
2. Ask: "Am I building a life in which I regularly encounter these values in their fullness?" Rate each 1–5.
3. For your lowest-scoring B-Value, identify one way to increase your contact with it this week.
4. 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.