Aside from the three necessities of life; food, shelter, and clothing, don’t you often think about something you use every day and feel like you can’t live without it? You feel like it is an absolute necessity. A must-have. A need? And what can you define as a need? When you say you are in need, it means you have an absolute requirement for that thing. These needs are things that are necessary for the benefit of your health, happiness, and success.
In the past, what they considered needs were utterly minimalistic things. But as times change, so does the concept of basic needs change for us. Back then, people would not classify something like a telephone as part of the basic requirements of life, but can you even think of going a day without your phone? What about a lifetime? Do you think you can live without owning a phone?
In this decade, things like a telephone are essential for our day-to-day activities, and as such, are classified as part of what we can’t live without today. A necessity!
In this post, I’m going to list out some things that you can not live without. Going without them is like surviving in the wild. You just can not! If you doubt me, you can try to stay off them for maybe a few weeks. I bet you can’t! Here are some crucial things that you can not live without in this day and age.
1. You can’t live without food
It is one of the fundamental needs of life. Of the three most basic needs, to me, food is the most essential. You can try to manage without clothing and shelter under favorable weather conditions but to survive without food for a long time is detrimental. You can not live without food. Food is also essential to energize, replenish, keep a person healthy, and ultimately for survival.
2. You can’t live without water
Water is useful to us. Drinking water is one of the most important requirements for survival. You can go long without food but staying dehydrated for a few days can lead to death. Water is useful for agricultural purposes.
Plants need water to grow so they can provide us with the nourishment that we need from them. You can also use water for various purposes like washing, cleaning, cooking, and a ton of other domestic activities.
On the industrial level, water is an indispensable need. You use water for the production of different industrial products, beverages, and many more; things like soaps, soft drinks, paint, cosmetics, etc. You can not live without water.
3. You need shelter
It is also one of the most basic necessities of man to ensure survival. We do not have tough skin, so we required shelter to protect us from the elements. A place to stay covered from the harshness of the weather, and also from wild animals. Dangerous predators would hunt us down for food.
In these modern times, delinquents like thieves, rapists, murderers, etc., have taken the place of wild animals. These predators are even more dangerous than the ones our ancestors needed protection from, which has made our concept of shelter evolve to accommodate the dangers of this time.
These days, we do not construct a modern shelter only to keep the elements and wild animals at bay (as it used to be in the past). We now build shelters, mostly, to keep these modern predators from evading our homes. It is clear to see why you can not live without shelter.
4. You need healthcare
In medieval times when proper Healthcare was inconceivable, a woman would have a 50/50 chance of survival during childbirth. A sick person would have to hope that they were strong enough for recovery else they had little chance of surviving.
The life expectancy age was half of what it is now, the population was less dense because of the high mortality rate, and people saw sickness and disease-like plagues and punishment for doing bad things.
Looking back makes you wonder how people could live in times where medicine and proper health care were inaccessible and not advanced. You are probably thinking about how you can not just live without access to good Healthcare.
Medical care is so advanced in this jet age that we do not only have the power to treat diseases and illnesses but also guard ourselves against ever getting some. In the past, if you were suffering from cramps, you would probably be asked to go to bed, and you would get honey or something.
Now, you can go to your medicine cabinet and pop some aspirin. The ability to conquer many diseases has saved us from so much stress. In doing so, it has also helped us to direct the rest of our energy to better ourselves and our environment.
5. You can’t live without clothing
While shelter and health care are necessary survival needs, clothing is one thing that no one can live without. Like ever! Sure, you want to keep out the cold. The best way to help preserve yourself while being in shelters and having proper health care is to have on some clothing. They protect you from the elements when you go out, keep you warm and keep you safe.
Today we do not just have clothing that keeps you warm but ones that can save your life. Imagine a fireman’s clothing. Would he be able to continue in that line of work without the proper attire? Things like shelter and clothing would not just cut it! He needs to have the right protection from the element he fights, and his clothing affords him that.
Asides from protection against harmful elements, clothing these days goes a long way in helping a person. A random person would tread with caution while dealing with a police officer because of the kind of clothing he wears.
A priest is revered and given more importance by the attire he wears. Clothing, these days, symbolizes a lot more than just protection from the elements. You can not live without them. If you think you can, try it!
6. You need education
“My people suffer for lack of knowledge”. Where have you heard this phrase before?
It is a blinding truth. We read the history of the past civilization and wonder how on earth people could think like that. We see how people make decisions on ideas and knowledge that are so archaic, yet how can we blame them? Without the knowledge we have today, we all would have made the same decisions and mistakes that our ancestors made.
Even up until recently, knowledge was also considered a valuable asset. It was guarded and shared with cult-like devotion. Today, all that has changed with unlimited access to knowledge. Education is open to everyone and even encouraged.
Besides, it is a necessary skill required to navigate this world. To be literate is to be equipped with powerful skills to help you survive. It is an absolute need in this contemporary society, and you can not just live without it.
7. You need information
Again, this is the case of my people perishing for lack of knowledge.
Information is a need you can not live without. Decisions are made or canceled based on the information you receive or the lack of it. It is one very essential tool for navigating through this society.
Thanks to the internet, much of the information you will ever need to find, and use is accessible just on a screen. From the comfort of your location, you can do and learn almost anything at all. You can even make a living without ever leaving the comfort of your home just by the information you can get from the internet.
8. You can’t do without family and friends
We have always survived by being united with others. The need to build a community has made us more dependent on the people around us to survive. Today, the reasons for this alliance or dependence are not the same, but the need still exists.
Family is a concept that is so unique, beautiful, and powerful; an entity that is built on interdependence. To many people, a family is the safest place to be; a place where there is trust, love, care, and support. A family is a group that exists to protect its members from whatever may be threatening them. To support as much as they can. Emotionally, financially, spiritually, and socially; all depending on the individual needs. The bond a family shares is so strong that the members are affected if it gets broken.
Parents, siblings, and blood relatives are not the only constituents of a family. Friends and loved ones can make up a bond that is not unlike what a family shares. Good friends can shine a light on gloomy days. They can help soothe emotional and mental pain. They can also offer support in a crisis, and make life better for you.
Furthermore, living without a family unit is like building without a solid foundation. When things get too hard, you need a support system to fall back on. Family is invaluable, which is why it is one of the things you can not live without. Well, you can not, quite literally, live without a family.
9. You need inspiration
You can not live without the drive to live. People rake their lives every day, and it is not because they have suffered more (although many have probably gone through difficult times), but it is the lack of motivation to keep thriving. To keep moving forward. When you lose the inspiration and motivation you need to continue life, despite the troubles, you fail to see any reason in staying alive.
Motivation is essential for survival. You can not go on living your life without it. It is the drive to know more, to do better, to explore, to continue, to fail and keep trying, to learn, to succeed, and to live. No motivation equals no desire to do anything. Our biology runs on it.
Think about it. What drives you to eat? It is the reward of being energized and refreshed; the remembrance of the repercussions of starvation. But if that regard is gone; if you can stay for weeks without eating anything and you do not feel any differently, no pain, no weakness, you would not see any reason to keep eating. You would starve to death.
10. Hobbies and rest
You may think this sounds irrelevant, but hobbies are things that are necessary for you to enjoy the meaning of living. When you find hobbies or keep on doing old ones, you find yourself more relaxed and stress-free. Hobbies also give you a break from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day activities. Besides that, hobbies can distract you from feeling the impact of a terrible situation.
They help you see the finer things of life by enabling you to do what you love doing best. You do not see any higher purpose or compulsion to do hobbies, as they are things you love doing, and this practice can help you focus on a lot of things. Find time to do the things you enjoy; the things you do not see as work, and you will find strength in yourself when you face difficulty.
Rest is also a necessary part of living. You can not live without it. All work and no rest is a recipe for disaster. Even your body has an inbuilt rest system. Rest is essential to your general wellbeing and productivity. It helps replenish lost energy; helps soothe your mind; helps calm you down in stressful situations and improves your ability to learn.
Have you ever heard of the story of two woodcutters? One worked for years without any increase to his wages and the other, who was new at the job, got his wages increased within a few years of starting work. The other woodcutter felt cheated and demanded the reason why this newcomer got an increase. Their employer told him that it was because the new one was far more productive than he.
This old woodcutter swallowed his anger and resentment and asked the new one how he could be that productive. The answer he got sounded counterproductive. The other woodcutter told him that he takes time out in the day to rest, replenish himself and sharpen his axe while the old one worked nonstop!
Like the old woodcutter, have you been working nonstop without any rest? Have you felt far less productive despite your hard work? If this is the case, then you have not given yourself time to rest and rejuvenate. You have not allowed yourself to reboot and get boosted. You can also develop serious health issues if you do not have enough rest. Make this a part of your routine today.
You can’t do without MONEY
If you think about the one essential goal in life, it is to stay alive. Until death, inevitably comes, of course. Money is the ONLY way to do that. Without money, you can not live. Think about it anyhow you wish; money is the principal thing. It also powers all other basic needs. Money gets you food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, almost everything you need to stay alive.
You can choose to live without it, grow your food, build your shelter (that is if you find an unowned property to do that), make your clothing. But the chances of surviving strictly on those things without using money is pretty slim! You will also need medicine, drinkable water, even the shelter you build yourself will be inadequate to serve the purpose of protecting you. You can not do without money.
Furthermore, the need for having this one survival tool that can access the rest is what drives so many people to do the things they do. Good or bad. Money is essential. An absolute need. A must-have. You can not live without it.
These things were not seen as ”Necessary” in the past, but they are as necessary as food and water today. They may evolve in the future, but for now, they are some of the essential requirements for living. Trust me; you can not live without them.
