Generative Research:

What I can’t live without?

1.       Sense of belonging:  When I started writing this blog, it was really difficult for me to come up with something. All I could think of the obvious ones (thanks to my engineering background) - Oxygen, food and shelter. And I know if I write this, I would be technically right. But it would add no value to a marketer. So for the purpose of this learning exercise let me focus and try again. I think of my husband. A person. I don’t want to write about him. He is an obvious part of me. But I want to dive deeper into mind and find the emotional needs (not wants). What do I need? I need a sense of belonging! Man is a social animal. We constantly need interaction. Recently on my trip to Bay Area, I learnt about this notorious prison in the Alcatraz Island. The prisoners were thrown here and were tortured not physically but emotionally. The prisoners would have access to food, water and oxygen but literally no human contact. They will be sentenced to a lifetime in prison. Here is where some prisoners have died of boredom from lack of human contact (rather literally). They would cut their wrists and bleed to death to escape the boredom. And this is true for everyone as it is true of me. I guess it’s just the dosage that makes us different. I need to belong as a wife, as a daughter, as a friend .

 

2.       Coffee on the couch – This is one of the things I need to do to keep going. A little time to myself to sip some coffee on the couch. I am not a very happy person if I don’t have a cup of coffee. This is much more than just coffee. This is when I reflect on the day. This is when I don’t feel that I am being selfish for keeping those 15 minutes to myself because I know I deserve it after a long hard day at school. This is when I am just me. I don’t care about the world. I am my world…just this once. Just this few minutes in a day.

 

What I care about

 

1.       Career: I need a career to feel a sense of accomplishment. I am not very proud of this. Like most of the MBA graduates, I think I may have let my job define me and my happiness. I know I need a job/career to be happy about whom I am. I need my pay check not to buy fancy things but to reassure me of my worthiness.

2.       My pet dog: I love my pet dog Cookie. In fact she is lying by my side as I am writing this. I care about her. I am her pet mom. She is the first dog I am having and it is from her I learnt what it feels like to be a mother.