not ended; when he discovered how to build a shelter out of stone, then out of brick, then out of glass and steel, his
need of thought and effort was not ended; when he moved his life expectancy from nineteen to thirty to forty to
sixty to seventy, his need of thought and effort was not ended; so long as he lives, his need of thought and effort is
never ended.
Every achievement of man is a value in itself, but it is also a stepping-stone to greater achievement and values. Life
is growth; not to move forward, is to fall backward; life remains life, only so long as it advances. Every step
upward opens to man a wider range of action and achievement, and creates the need for that action and
achievement. There is no final, permanent "plateau." The problem of survival is never "solved," once and for all,
with no further thought or motion required. More precisely, the problem of survival is solved, by the recognition
that survival demands constant growth and creativeness.
The desire to grow in knowledge and skills, in understanding and control, is the expression of a man's commitment
to the life process—and to the state of being human. If and when a man decides that, in effect, he has "thought
enough," that no further learning is necessary, that he has nowhere to go and nothing to achieve—he has decided, in
fact, that he has "lived enough." Stagnant passivity and self-esteem are incompatible.
The foregoing should not be taken to mean that, for the psychologically healthy man, life consists exclusively of
problem-solving, productive work, and the pursuit of long-range goals. Leisure, recreation, love, human
companionship are vital elements in human existence. But productive work is the process through which a man
achieves that sense of control over his life which is the precondition of his being able fully to enjoy the other values
possible to him. The man whose life lacks direction or purpose, the man who has no productive aim, necessarily
feels helpless and out of control; the man who feels helpless and out of control, feels inadequate to and unfit for
existence; and the man who feels unfit for existence is incapable of enjoying it. A productive purpose is a
psychological need—a requirement of psychological well-being.
Observe that the earliest, self-generated pleasure of a human being's life is the pleasure of gaining a sense of
control, a sense of