Alan works in a research laboratory. He owns a house, and he earns enough to sustain himself. He has a large social circle and makes time to meet his friends at least once a week. However, Alan feels that he is capable of much more and can achieve a lot more in life. He is striving to bring out the best within himself. In the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Alan is trying to fulfill his:.

“dear sir: it is with great reluctance, i trouble you on a subject, which does not fall within your province; but it is a subject that occasions me more distress, than i have felt, since the commencement of the war; and which loudly demands the most zealous exertions of every person of weight and authority, who is interested in the success of our affairs. i mean the present dreadful situation of the army for want of provisions, and the miserable prospects before us, with respect to futurity. it is more alarming than you will probably conceive, for, to form a just idea, it were necessary to be on the spot. for some days past, there has been little less, than a famine in camp. a part of the army has been a week, without any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings, to a general mutiny or dispersion. strong symptoms, however, discontent have appeared in particular instances; and nothing but the most acitive efforts every where can long avert so shocking a catastrophe.” what’s the central idea?