The increasing output-oriented effectivity and regulatory power of socio-economic structures fail to meet human potentials for personal, social and political unfolding. Targeting the patterns of behaviour that underlie these structures, the author investigates in possibilities for transformation that arise from the awareness of needs within the political subject. What can this awareness mean and what are possible ways to foster awareness of own needs? The author gives a critical overview of different understandings of needs and connects it to practical aspects, leading towards an own approach of doing what we have to do, in order to be who we are.