I woke up this morning with the thought that “Writing is the Essence of Self-Actualization.” If you are familiar with Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs Pyramid, you’ll know that Self-Actualization is on the top of his pyramid. The pryamid begins with biological needs at the bottom, then moves up to safety needs, then up to love/belongingness needs, then up to esteem needs and then finally self-actualization needs.

After I was fully awake, I reviewed his pyramid and I think writing is actually fullfilling both “esteem” needs and “self-actualization” needs. Esteem needs are defined as achievement, status, responsibility, reputation and self-actualization needs are defined as personal growth and fulfillment.

Here’s why I was pondering this concept: according to the American Association of Publishers, 83% of Americans have thought about writing a book and we know that each year millions of people actually do write a book. Despite the large numbers of books being written each year, we also hear reports of fewer and fewer people reading books. We also know that writing a book is easy compared to finding readers to buy books.

So if it is so hard to make a buck as an author, why do so many people write? Maslow’s pyramid gives us the answer. What better way to fulfill your esteem and self-actualization needs than to write a book. Many authors we work with get discouraged at how hard it is to make a living as an author. When I hear this, I think inside how successful the author is to have simply written a book. (I never say this outloud as authors would probably think I’m flattering them) Writing a book is a significant achievement regardless of how many copies an author sells.

Now think about this. If writing a book fills the esteem/self-actualization needs, what needs does selling books fulfill? Well, first of all, selling books fulfills the belongingness/love need. What better way to feel the love than by having people read your book and tell you they loved it? Selling books also fills the safety and biological needs because if you can sell books, you may create a nice income-producing asset that will put food on your table.

To conclude, writing fulfills the two highest needs on the Maslow pyramid while selling books fulfills the three lower needs. If you have written a book, you have accomplished something millions of other people only dream of doing. That is a major achievement.