Categories
Vertical Development

The Need for Psychological Room to Grow

This is the experience of most people on the planet. They find it difficult to meet their survival, safety and security needs. Consequently, like my father, they never get the opportunity to explore the fourth stage of their psychological development; they never get to individuate.

Let’s assume that you are a young adult, in your mid-twenties or early thirties, and you are fortunate enough to live in a nation where you can get your survival, safety and security needs met. You will now want to find freedom and autonomy to become independent and accountable for your life; to adopt the values and beliefs that are meaningful to you, rather than the values and beliefs of your parents or the community in which you were raised. You will want to individuate.

If you are successful, and you can also meet your survival, safety and security needs, then you will feel a sense of well-being. If you are successful at individuating, but for whatever reason you are no longer able to meet your survival, safety or security needs, then you will not feel a sense of well-being.

The contrary is also true; if you can meet your survival, safety and security needs but cannot meet your individuating needs, you will not feel a sense of well-being. This was the situation that precipitated the Arab Spring.

Young adults from the Arab nations of North Africa and the Middle East had studied abroad and come home to relatively high-paying private sector jobs that allowed them to meet their survival, safety and security needs. They now wanted the freedom to explore their own values and beliefs; they wanted to individuate. Unfortunately, they came up against authoritarian regimes that were operating from a lower stage of development. Although they demonstrated over several weeks, their needs were not recognized. Many of these people left their respective countries because they were being prevented from growing and developing. They could only find well-being by settling in a country that was operating from a higher stage of development that allowed them to individuate.

Richard Barrett, Worldview Dynamics and the Well Being of Nations

I wanted to highlight this important quote because it touches upon what I experienced myself. Not in terms of wanting to move to another country but wanting to move to another company.

Simply put, I couldn’t find a conducive organizational setting that would align with where I wanted to grow and development.

So even though my survival, safety, and security needs where being met by having a job within a company, my growth needs were not being met because many of the leaders within these companies I worked for often operated from at a lower stage of development than me.

What this created was a continual catch-22 situation whereby I would need to fulfil my survival, safety, and security needs, so I would get a job. But then after being in the job for six months to a year, I found I couldn’t really express myself and grow within it because management operated from a lower of stage of development than me. This caused me to eventually quit in frustration and start back at square one, needing to get a job again to meet my survival, safety, and security needs.

For many people in the United States right now, who are operating from a higher stage of development, they are probably feeling the same way about living within the United States and having a president who is operating from a lower stage of development. They probably are feeling like they want to leave the country and go to another country where the leader is operating at a higher stage of development.

Categories
Vertical Development

Accepting the Being of My Potentiality & the Language It Requires

I’m tired of this.

I’m tired of continually beating myself up and asking myself, “What’s wrong with me?”

Yes, everyone probably does this everyday but let me explain the context of why I do this.

I beat myself up and wonder what’s wrong with me…when I’m able to perceive and understand something that apparently not many others can perceive and understand.

So because I can perceive something that others seem perceptually blind to, I label myself as a freak or an oddity, effectively seeing myself as an outcast.

Yet I’m tired of this.

Like last night, I started reading Richard Barrett’s book Worldview Dynamics and the Well Being of Nations.

And when I did, it felt like both returning home and returning to an exciting adventure that I’ve been on at the same time.

Like I just get “it” and “it” gets me.

And this doesn’t feel like work, it feels like play—glorious, adventurous play.

That’s it.

That’s all I wanted to say.

I’m tired of beating myself up about a potentiality of myself that makes me feel wondrously alive.

Actually no, I think there’s more.

I think what I want is to find my “tribe.” In effect, find the same kind of people who are able to perceive what I can perceive.

And it’s not like this is impossible because I know there are many people who value Richard Barrett’s work.

So if I had to describe what I’m seeking and need, it’s to find a community of people who are fully aware of vertical development and are sharing their own journeys and perspectives of it.

I guess the other thing I want to say is this.

I realize what I’m experiencing and communicating is monumentally challenging for people to grasp but I’ve done the journey myself.

I’ve crossed the inner terrain, expanded my worldview, and have learnt the language of the people of this realm, so anyone else can.

They just have to be willing to undertake the journey.

All the knowledge is out there, freely accessible on the Web, they just have to have a desire and resonance to read it.

No matter what I say, I can’t force someone to start that journey.

They have to want to start it themselves.

But when they’re on the journey, seriously on it, and want to understand the language of these different realms, then I’d be happy to help translate and help them understand the characteristics of these stages of psychological development.

But they have to understand the basic terminology of this space first. Until they do that, I can’t help them because they won’t understand my language.

They have to want to step beyond the horizon of their current mind and explore into an unknown space.

And ya, it’s scary as hell to do but there are people doing it everyday.

All I want to do is connect these people up and help them realize that they are all on the same journey of growth and development and not alone.

That’s it.

I no longer want to try to explain who I am or what I’m seeing to anyone anymore…unless they are on the same journey and understand the basic language of it.

In doing so, I think I’ll finally just be able to accept myself as I am, instead of continually beating myself up for having a potentially beyond others.

Somehow I think this is an essential step I have to take if I want to step beyond a Self-Authoring Mind and stabilize myself with a Self-Transforming Mind.

I have to fully accept who I am at all levels of my being.

Categories
Books

Values: Building a Better World for All

by Mark Carney

Also in light of the upcoming election in Canada, I’ve been reading Mark Carney’s book on value(s) as well.

I’m particularly interested in seeing if there is any correlation between Mark’s perspective and how the future of work requires both individuals and organizations to level up their consciousness via vertical development, thus allowing them to contribute on a national level as well.

Categories
Books

Worldview Dynamics and the Well Being of Nations

by Richard Barrett

In light of the recent upcoming election in Canada and the current state of the world, I’ve started reading Richard Barrett’s book which deals with growth and development on a national level.

Categories
Communities

Communities Aren’t Just Where We Live

What is a community? A location, like a city, town or neighbourhood? Or people who share something fundamental, like language, heritage, religion, culture or interests? Sure. But a community isn’t just a place or a group — it’s also a way of being.

The word “community” comes from the Latin “communitas” and “communitatem,” which refer to joint use or a fellowship. An early meaning, from the 14th century, centred on common possessions or enjoyment. More than being what we are, a community is what we do. It’s about building and growing together, making the changes that recognize the needs of us all.

Stuart Foxman, Strength in Numbers

I think communities first and foremost are about a way of being. And from that common sense of being arises a common sense of doing.

And from my experiences, it doesn’t really matter if these communities are online or offline. They inhabit the same characteristics of being and doing.

Categories
Vertical Development

Mark Carney Interviewed by Scott Galloway

Seriously, Mark Carney is on another level (of consciousness) compared to most politicians today.

There is no way that any other politician in Canada has the knowledge, experience, and expertise to answer such wide ranging questions at such a critical time in the world today in such a precise and articulate way.

In fact, if it was any other politician, they would just spend most of their time blaming the other political party rather than actually talking about how they plan to deal with the crisis.

Mark Carney takes this a step further by having an actual, creative plan that turns this crisis into an opportunity for Canada, thus helping us to “build” our way out of it.

This is why I think most politicians can’t comprehend Carney. It’s because he’s working on another level (of consciousness) that they can’t comprehend. In effect, what he’s doing seems paradoxical and counterintuitive to most politicians because they don’t have the perception, experience, and wisdom to understand what he’s doing.

For example, in comparison, most politicians talk about “making cuts” to reduce government spending. This is the worst thing you can do in a crisis because you’re ignoring the needs of the people. Instead you need to spend money to invest in people.

So the government spending money at this time isn’t the issue. What the government is spending money on is the issue.

Will that spending provide a return on investment? If so, there’s nothing wrong with that spending.

BTW make sure you check out the video’s comments on YouTube, as they’re pretty amazing.

Categories
Vertical Development

Intelligence Isn’t the Limiter

Microsoft AI CEO says cash will be replaced by intelligence as new currency in the AI era
Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman claims AI will eradicate the need for hard cash, making intelligence the new currency.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsofts-ai-ceo-mustafa-suleyman-says-we-wont-need-hard-dollars-in-the-ai-era-intelligence-will-be-the-new-currency

We’re taking this intelligence, the thing that has made us successful as a species, this ability to predict in complicated environments and take this action. We’re making it cheap and basically abundant. And in a way, that’s kind of like providing you with a team of support around you to help execute on your idea.

Mustafa Suleyman

This statement is typical for a CEO in the business world but it completely misses the bigger picture and bigger problem.

Intelligence is not the limiter in executing ideas.

You, your “self,” are the limiter.

In effect, people are striving to express their ideas everyday. They can write them out succinctly in a short tweet or in more detail in a larger blog post.

The problem they have isn’t writing their ideas out.

Their problem is pressing the button at the end to share the ideas they’ve just written out.

In effect, if you’re afraid and fearful of publicly expressing and sharing your ideas, good luck in trying to actually execute on them.

I said this years back, that people have very little fear in trying something new. What they have fear in is sharing something new that they’re exploring.

Intelligence is not the limiter.

Our existing sense of “self” is the limiter.

This is what vertical development, as an embodiment of psychological growth and development, is all about.

It’s about creatively getting out of your own way by letting go of your old sense of “self” so that your larger sense of Self can emerge.

This is embodied by the shift beyond a Self-Authoring Mind, whereby it needs to let go of knowledge as being the be-all and end-all, so that the person can let go of trying to be an “expert” of knowledge and instead transition to being an “expert” of knowing themselves.

That’s where true wisdom lies.

Categories
Vertical Development

The Change You Seek Isn’t Out There But Within You

Adam Grant Shared 1 Crystal-Clear Way You Can Master Your Self-Leadership
Wharton professor Adam Grant paints a great picture of how to lead yourself better.
https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/adam-grant-shared-1-crystal-clear-way-you-can-master-your-self-leadership/91176447

If you’re like most people, you waste a lot of time and energy trying to control things that aren’t ours to control: people’s opinions, behaviors, reactions. The irony? The more you try to manage what’s outside of you, the less effective you become at leading yourself.

At the center were the things in your control:

  • The way you respond to people and situations
  • The people you choose to spend time with
  • The way you communicate and speak to others
  • Your attitude and your boundaries
  • The way you treat others

Everything outside that circle? Stuff you often fixate on but can’t change: other people’s behaviors, the past/the future, outcomes, external events, and even what others say about you.

We don’t control how others treat us—we control how we treat them. We don’t decide what happens to us—we decide how we respond.

Adam Grant

This mirrors an awesome speech by Pema Chödrön about This Lousy World. Within it she describes how most of us are often frustrated with the world around us and wish we could change the entire world to make it better. She describes the analogy like wanting to cover the world with leather so our bare feet will no longer experience pain. Of course, she explains, why not just make sandals out of leather to cover your own feet?

So the analogy is, if you work with your mind, instead of trying to change everything on the outside, that’s how your temper will cool down.

Pema Chödrön

This is a core message about growth and development. It’s not about forcing someone else to change but about changing yourself (ie. “Be the change you wish to see in the world”).

This also embodies Joseph Campbell’s Hero Journey as a metaphorical embodiment of our inner psychological growth and development. In effect, by undergoing this inner journey, we are able to not only transform the way we perceive ourselves but the way we perceive the world around us, as the two are entwined as our worldview. Thus by transforming ourselves internally, we are actually transforming and changing our world externally.

Categories
Creativity

Creativity Is Discovering What’s Already There But You Just Weren’t Aware of It

I just want to reiterate something I’ve realized a while back because I think it’s critical to the experience of growth and development.

Creativity is a process of discovering something that’s already there but you just weren’t aware of it until you actually discovered it.

The keyword in that statement above is aware.

This is why you didn’t know this thing already existed because you just weren’t aware of it.

This has become a reoccurring pattern in my own growth and development.

For example, in 2001 when I experienced my first major challenge as an adult in my life, I was completely oblivious and unaware that I had already gone through previous stages of psychological development in my life and had levelled up my level of consciousness already. If I had, it may have altered my perspective and perception of the challenge I was facing at that moment and may have helped me to progress through it quicker rather than fight against the experience.

Another example applies to organizational development. Perhaps if leaders in organizations could become aware of and see the collective leadership already within their company, they wouldn’t try to control people to change but let people change in ways they already are. In effect, often people are taking collective leadership within organizations to work around the bureaucracy of existing “leaders.” So if you just get out of their way and let them freely explore this collective leadership, the transformation of the organization will occur much more effortlessly.

And finally, if I had been aware I was transitioning to the next stage of my psychological development back in 2015, I perhaps wouldn’t have wasted so many years beating myself up at “failing” when I was actually “growing.” In effect I wasn’t aware that the challenge I was facing, which feels like hitting a wall and feeling stuck, was the actual indicator that I was beginning to transition to a new stage of development.

Of course, someone might say, “Well hindsight is 20/20.” In other words, it’s easy to see what should have been done after an event has already happened, but it’s harder to see that clearly beforehand.

But this goes beyond this. Why? Because even after the event had occurred, I wasn’t aware of the transition because I was still immersed within it. In effect, events are events. Transitions, however, are multiple ongoing events and experiences.

In other words, it harder to become aware of things you’re still immersed within. In effect, something you’re still dealing with and trying to move forward with.

Yet the paradox here is that you often can’t become aware of what you’re immersed within, until you can creatively step out of it and gain an objective perspective of it to actually become aware of it.

This is what I believe reflection allows someone to creatively do but I obviously don’t do it enough.

I need to make a daily practice of reflection.

Reflection is perception training.
The more you reflect, the more you catch emergence mid-bloom.

ChatGPT
Categories
Life Is a Role-Playing Game

Using Role-Playing Games As Safe Spaces to Take Risks

Improving treatment with role-playing games
Using games like Dungeons and Dragons in group therapy shows promise for treating anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, and more.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/04-05/role-playing-games-therapy

While this world is imaginary, proponents say it can be a powerful conduit for self-knowledge that enables participants to make lasting changes in their everyday lives.

TTRPGs (tabletop role-playing games) are essentially a simulation machine.

Jared N. Kilmer, PhD

When someone messes up, they don’t feel as bad because it was their character. The consequences become the character’s problem.

Heather Whittall, PsyD

In the structured environment of gameplay, therapists can ensure players feel emotionally safe to take risks in the game.

A lot of people I work with aren’t used to people respecting their boundaries, so this can be a corrective experience.

Megan Connell, PsyD, ABPP

Players can speak about their feelings through the character, which helps them slowly get engaged

Elizabeth Kilmer

It feels safer to practice in a game, knowing the consequences won’t feel as catastrophic as in real life.

William Nation, PhD

The more the player practiced vocalizing in the game, the more confident they became taking initiative in the game and in real life.

Allison Battles, PhD

One veteran Carbone worked with was unhappy with her job but lacked confidence to apply for a leadership role. The group agreed that she should lead their next adventure so she could practice heading up a group. By leading other players in a pretend adventure—often making decisions on behalf of the group—the player was able to build her self-esteem to the point where she felt deserving of a better job. She landed a new job a few months later.

This approach is so effective to help people reach their therapeutic goals that I almost see it as unethical to not use it

Megan Connell, PsyD, ABPP

A lot of what’s implemented within here, I apply to my Life is a Role-Playing Game framework, especially the psychological distancing that is created when a person envisions themselves, their identity, as a “character” they are “role-playing.”

BTW the example of the person above taking a leadership role in the game and then getting a leadership position in real life mirrors my own experiences. Around 1996, I took a leadership position within an online community around the game Quake Capture The Flag. This is something I really didn’t think I was ready for in real life. By 1998 though, I was offered and accepted a senior leadership position within a web firm building online community hubs for some of the largest video game publishers at the time (i.e. Sierra, Activision, Konami).