If there is one line I have heard repeated time and time again, by those as close to me as my nearest relatives to total strangers on a busy subway, it's the following; I wish life came with instructions. Most people wander through life, acting on instinct, near and long term desires and plans and hopefully, through the experience of living, they pick up some wisdom, insight and perhaps even a glimmer of understanding of life. Those that are more astute, or more interested, might study psychology or observe those around them to gain further insight into the ‘why' of people's actions and thoughts. In recent years, a more progressive and educated generation has synthesized many disparate types of theory and research and the result is a digestion and cumulative synthesis into a practical ‘roadmap' of understanding. I call this the ‘Self-Worth Model' and it really is as close as we have come to an ‘instruction book' to life.
 For thousands of years people have turned to religion to explain life's great questions. While religion can certainly teach lessons of morality and express age-old wisdoms and teachings that may or may not be correct depending on your philosophy, either way, at best, religion can only serve as an instruction book in an historic and contextual manner. In order to understand people in a one on one intimate environment, living in the here and now, we must use something else.  We must have some kind of accurate ‘system' of understanding why people do what they do. If we can accomplish this, then we have a much better chance of navigating the complex world successfully and achieving our own goals and fulfilling our own needs.
 In the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st, several offshoots of psychology such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Behaviorism inspired such authors as David Lieberman and Anthony Robbins to take the mantle of understanding human interaction and relationships from such notables as Dale Carnegie and expand upon those ideas. These recent works benefit from a more thorough understanding of both the psychological underpinnings. At the same time, modern science has advanced in recent years to understand more fully how the brain chemistry is involved in emotions and how the chemical and electrical mix that makes up our brains play a part in our behavior and in our ability to adapt that behavior. Some of the most recent work delves into such topics as neuro-plasticity, or the ability of the brain to actually change over time due to external and internal stimuli.
 We are now able to bring all these parts together into a cohesive ‘model' and here is how it works:
 From the most basic tasks to the most complex endeavors, everything that each of us does in one way or another is really motivated by one singular goal in life. Our goal is to maximize the chances that our genes, and those of our close relatives will pass on to future generations fulfilling the human need to pro-create. This is what I call ‘The Fundamental Law'.  Take any thought you make or action you take. Literally anything...and in nothing more than a few short mental steps you can link it to your desire to either survive, attract a better mate, improve your standing amongst others or in some way or form improve your desire to survive and procreate. It's really that simple. Once we know this then, we can now venture into the minutiae of the complex, intimate and seemingly unrelated decisions and relationships we all encounter every day and see how this all works. Â
 Much of it is not obvious until you work backwards and see the connection to our fundamental law. For instance, let's take a simple task, say tying your shoe. Well what does tying your shoe have to do with improving your chance of pro-creation? Simple. The reason you tie your shoe is so that you don't trip and hurt yourself and at the same time to keep the shoe on to protect your feet. Both of these increase your chances of successfully navigating out of the house to do whatever it is you are going to do and to decrease the chance of you hurting yourself. So in that small way, it might not seem obvious at first, but that simple action of tying a shoe vs. not tying it is part of our continual process of survival. For much further analysis and to delve into infinitely more in depth insight into human behavior than can be accomplished in one article please visit www.selfawareness101.comÂ
 For thousands of years people have turned to religion to explain life's great questions. While religion can certainly teach lessons of morality and express age-old wisdoms and teachings that may or may not be correct depending on your philosophy, either way, at best, religion can only serve as an instruction book in an historic and contextual manner. In order to understand people in a one on one intimate environment, living in the here and now, we must use something else.  We must have some kind of accurate ‘system' of understanding why people do what they do. If we can accomplish this, then we have a much better chance of navigating the complex world successfully and achieving our own goals and fulfilling our own needs.
 In the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st, several offshoots of psychology such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Behaviorism inspired such authors as David Lieberman and Anthony Robbins to take the mantle of understanding human interaction and relationships from such notables as Dale Carnegie and expand upon those ideas. These recent works benefit from a more thorough understanding of both the psychological underpinnings. At the same time, modern science has advanced in recent years to understand more fully how the brain chemistry is involved in emotions and how the chemical and electrical mix that makes up our brains play a part in our behavior and in our ability to adapt that behavior. Some of the most recent work delves into such topics as neuro-plasticity, or the ability of the brain to actually change over time due to external and internal stimuli.
 We are now able to bring all these parts together into a cohesive ‘model' and here is how it works:
 From the most basic tasks to the most complex endeavors, everything that each of us does in one way or another is really motivated by one singular goal in life. Our goal is to maximize the chances that our genes, and those of our close relatives will pass on to future generations fulfilling the human need to pro-create. This is what I call ‘The Fundamental Law'.  Take any thought you make or action you take. Literally anything...and in nothing more than a few short mental steps you can link it to your desire to either survive, attract a better mate, improve your standing amongst others or in some way or form improve your desire to survive and procreate. It's really that simple. Once we know this then, we can now venture into the minutiae of the complex, intimate and seemingly unrelated decisions and relationships we all encounter every day and see how this all works. Â
 Much of it is not obvious until you work backwards and see the connection to our fundamental law. For instance, let's take a simple task, say tying your shoe. Well what does tying your shoe have to do with improving your chance of pro-creation? Simple. The reason you tie your shoe is so that you don't trip and hurt yourself and at the same time to keep the shoe on to protect your feet. Both of these increase your chances of successfully navigating out of the house to do whatever it is you are going to do and to decrease the chance of you hurting yourself. So in that small way, it might not seem obvious at first, but that simple action of tying a shoe vs. not tying it is part of our continual process of survival. For much further analysis and to delve into infinitely more in depth insight into human behavior than can be accomplished in one article please visit www.selfawareness101.comÂ