Do you know this feeling?

The one that you get when you can’t sleep at night. The one that you get when your head is racing. When you just cannot shut it down?

This feeling inside of you that pulls you forward. That makes you think “there’s more to this…”. This little voice that continues to tell you

“More… MORE!”

Do you know what this voice wants?

Did you know that it’s not just some toxic part of yourself that is just out for consumption?

Did you know that, instead of that, it is calling out to you. It is pushing you to go beyond. It is asking you, to become more of who you currently are.

To take a step back from how things are. And to observe them from a distance. But with a clarity that you couldn’t previously fathom.

Did you know that this voice is not calling you to earn more… Consume more… But to do something else?

Did you know that it is the fundamental human motivation that is calling out to you. It is calling for further exploration.

It is calling to you to make meaning of the world.

Proactively.

Did you know, that you can get better at that?

Did you know, that we have a science that tells you how..?

The Goal of Society

Societies are one of humanities great achievements.

It is a technology that allowed us to organize literally billions of people into a quasi-harmonious way of living.

Sure, there are serious wars going on. And yet, the majority of the 8.1 Billion people on this globe have their basic needs met.

We usually take this for granted. But it is an insane achievement (especially when you consider that about 7 million years ago, we still were some monkeys).

But this achievement comes at a cost. After all: nothing is free in life. Every action has a reaction. And every reaction requires an action.

Societies are the reaction to a specific type of action that we – within our societies – collectively take. It is the top down control that is imposed on us, and that we adapt and impose on ourselves. It is the force that keeps us in line. That makes us not venture to deep into the unknown that our societies don’t consider.

And generally, that’s not a bad thing.

Think about all the things that you have. Your home. Easy access to food and water. Free education online. A computer in your pocket that is literally 100.000x faster than the computer that guided Apollo 11 to the moon in 1969.

Things like this are not achieved if we are not somewhat in line.

Things like this would not be achieved if we would not be ready – Mentally. Develop-mentally – to achieve them. And so, societies not only try to keep us in line. But they also try to develop us to a certain degree.

Society’s goal is to shape its members into good citizen. How a good citizen exactly is different between societies and across time. But the fact that societies “act” to create the good citizen is a trait common among all societies.

But how do societies do that?

Ego Development

One of the major mechanisms via which societies develop their citizen is ego development.

Now you might think: “Really? I though ego development is just something for spiritual gurus and the like…”

And you would not be entirely wrong…

Ego development happens as you go through life. It happens for everyone. Everywhere. But it looks slightly different for everyone. Spiritual gurus (the proper ones) are just some of the people who push beyond the Ego-Development Goal of our current societies.

But before we look into that…

…what is the Ego, actually?

Understanding the Ego

Who are you?

What is it like to be you?

Is it your body? The people you surround yourself with? The things you own? The things you do? The things you believe in?

Your experience?

If you have ever thought about this (or start thinking about it now) you are getting in line with a huge number of other people who have thought about this question of “Who am I” – basically since the start of humanity (and maybe even earlier)…

The thing is this: all of the above are correct. But not all at the same time…

But how can that be?

It turns out that you – or more precisely: your ego – is developing from the day you were born.

You start as an infant. An undifferentiated bundle of experience. You are fully one with existence itself. But you are unconscious.

On the other end of the spectrum also lies an ego that is fully one with existence. But this time, it is conscious…

Ego development describes the movement through different stages from unconscious to conscious unity with existence.

As people move from one end to the other, they go through different stages of their ego. At each stage, they have a new way of looking at the world. A new reality, so to say. A specific perspective that characterises the stage that you are at at the moment.

These perspectives help you to make meaning of the world and what is happening within. Including your own identity. At some stages your identity may be based on the people you interact with. At others based on what you own, what you do, what you believe, and so on.

Societies goal is to help you develop your ego. To help you make meaning of the world and your place within it.

Because that is what your ego is: It is the thing – the entity – that makes meaning of your experience in the world. It is the thing that helps you to understand. And so, as your ego develops, so does your understanding…

But given society’s top down control and the need to shape you into a good citizen, it only helps you with developing your ego until a certain stage.

Lucky for us, the stages of ego development have been mapped…

…even beyond the stage that society has set out as a goal for you…

Why Ego Development Matters

“Now hold on!” you might be saying. “Don’t jump into the details of how to develop your ego just yet!”

I get it.

All of this still might sound very whoo whoo.

You might not be interested in becoming a conscious union with existence itself. And to be honest, that’s very fair. Only about 0.5% of people seem to reach that stage… And it’s not necessary for everyone.

However, this does not mean that understanding how your ego develops isn’t important. The contrary. Understanding where you are at in your ego development has many benefits

It can help you understand…

• how not to stand in your own way.

• what the limitation of your current worldview are

• how your current worldview can help you achieve your goals

These are just some of the examples…

There are many more. But all of those can be summarized under one umbrella.

Understanding your ego development means you gain a greater understanding. Period. Not just “greater understanding of…”. But greater understanding.

That’s why I am writing this.

We live in times where we seriously lack true understanding. We need more people that are aware of what they understand and what they do not understand. We need more people who can act in alignment with their understanding.

Only this way, can we overcome the challenges that we face as society.

So…

What are the stages of Ego development..?

A Full Spectrum Theory of Vertical Growth

Before jumping into the specific stages (and the specific model I want to write about today) know this: there are many approaches to investigating ego development. One of the most common one’s is Spiral Dynamics. This is not what I will talk about today.

I chose the model that I want to talk to you about today for two reasons

1. It really opened my eyes to my own development and that of people around me

2. It is very practical

If you take it serious, it immediately gives you a deeper understanding of yourself and the people around you… if you are willing to invest the time to truly understand that model.

The model that I am talking about is Susanne Cook-Greuter’s Levels of Increasing Embrace in Ego Development (sometimes it is also called Ego Development Theory (EDT), A full Spectrum Theory of Vertical Growth and Meaning Making, or Leadership Maturity Framework (LMF); the latter when it’s employed in work place settings).

It’s based on a long and carefully designed scientific process based on a sentence completion test. In its basic form it works like this:

1. You give a bunch of people (think 5,000 and up) a number of open questions and ask them to answer these.

2. You analyse the answers according to content and style of the answer.

3. You group all the people together who answer similarly.

4. You try to understand the way people in each group make sense of the world

5. You end up with a theory of ego development.

In this way Cook-Greuter was building on already existing theories, but developed them further through her own research…

I’m telling you all this so that you know that this is not just some intellectual masturbation. In the paper that I linked above, Cook-Greuter reports data on ca. 10,000 participants. This is an empirical model – one based on measurement – not just theory.

But with that out of the way, let’s finally dive into the model itself…

Ego Development Theory - The Fundamentals

As I described above, according to Cook-Greuter’s model, ego development occurs in stages. And there are some core principles that the overall movement form the first to the last stage follow:

• Growth occurs in logical sequence similar to a spiral.

• Later stages can only be reached by going through earlier stages (stages cannot be skipped).

• Stages that have been mastered remain part of one's ability to make meaning.

• Later stages integrate earlier ways of making meaning into a more complex meaning making framework.

• The current stages of development determine what people can be aware of, see in the World, can make meaning of etc.

• Psychological turmoil or “Derailment” can occur at any stage. This means that later stages are not more happy or adapted than earlier stages (although they allow for deeper meaning).

• Complete knowledge of reality can never be reached (although it might seem that way at some stages).

• Only earlier stages (relative to the current stage of Ego development) can be understood. Later stages first need to be reached to be truly understood.

• Vertical Growth can only be invited, not forced.

This is quite a lot to take in. You don’t need to understand everything immediately. It will make sense once you understand more about this model…

So, before we dive into the details of the individual stages (with some focus on the stages that are most likely to be relevant to you) let’s have a quick look at some overall patterns that the whole ego-development journey follows…

Some Fundamentals

The entirety of the development from unconscious unity via the nine stages to conscious unity is characterised by multiple cycles of differentiation and integration.

• Differentiation: A separation from unity. Making clear distinctions between oneself and others, specific beliefs systems, and ways of making sense of the world.

• Integration: An integration of previous identities and ways of meaning making into a new and more complex way of looking at the world.

These cycles occur

1. At the macro level of development: The first half of the stages lead to increasing differentiation from the unconscious unity. This way, a clear personal identity is created.

2. At the meso level of development: Between adjacent stages. Usually one stage leads to increased differentiation and a new way of looking at the world. The next stage is then a stage of integration where the worldview that came before is integrated into the new worldview that was just created.

3. At the micro level of development: Similar moves of differentiation and integration can also be made within a given stage.

Generally, these movements of differentiation and integration support two major types of development

1. Lateral Development: The development at a given stage. This way, more and more connections are made within the worldview of a given stage (e.g., by applying this worldview to different domains).

2. Vertical Development: This is what this model is about → How to vertically move to the next stage and reach a more complex way of making sense of the world. You learn to move between more complex ways of looking at the world.

These types of development can occur at the same time. So, you might be working on lateral development to really build a new home base at a particular stage. Yet, this might lead to further vertical growth later on.

For this reason, people are never at just one stage at a time. According to Cook-Greuter, they span 3-5 stages. And the kicker is: most of the time, it is much more interesting to see the spread of stages that people are at, rather than knowing what their "home base” is…

But with that knowledge equipped…

…let’s finally have a look at the stages…

The 9 Stages of Ego Development

The 9 stages can itself be categorised into four distinct meta stages:

1. Preconventional

   • Symbiotic | Stage 1

   • Impulsive | Stage 2

   • Self-Defensive / Opportunist | Stage 2/3

2. Conventional

   • Conformist / Diplomat | Stage 3

   • Self-Conscious / Expert | Stage 3/4

   • Conscientious / Achiever | Stage 4

3. Postconventional

   • Individualis | Stage 4/5

   • Autonomous / Strategist | Stage 5

   • Construct Aware / Ego Aware | Stage 5/6

4. Ego-Transcendent

   • Unitive | Stage 6

In the list above, stages with a whole number are stages of integration while stages that look like a fraction (2/3, 3/4, 4/5, and 5/6) are stages of differentiation.

The thing is: I cannot go into the details of every stage here. The original paper by Cook-Greuter is 90 pages long – and that for good reasons…

Rather, I want to help you understand the principles that distinguish each stage and then focus on the second half of the stages. This way, you will find it easier to get the model when you read the paper yourself (which I highly recommend) and then focus on stages that are most likely to be relevant to you!

So, what distinguishes the stages..?

Movement Across the Stages

Each stage is defined by a new level of perspective that can be taken.

At the first stage, there is no perspective at all. It is just undifferentiated experience. At the beginning of life, we first have to start making sense of everything that we experience. We haven’t yet learned what objects are. Everything is one.

The movement through the stages marks an increasing differentiation. By perceiving, we learn to cut things up. We learn to distinguish ourselves from the world around us. We learn to distinguish between different objects. And we continue to do this on our way up the stages… Until we are able to again become one with experience at the unitive stage 6. But now, fully conscious.

During this movement, different forms of perspectives develop:

• 1st Person Perspective

• 2nd Person Perspective

• 3rd Person Perspective

• 4th Person Perspective

• 5th Person Perspective

• nth Person Perspective

We will skip the first two types of perspectives (seeing things from your perspective and learning to understand that others have their own first person perspective of you) and jump in between the 2nd and 3rd person perspective.

This is that start of the conventional stages.

This is where it becomes very interesting for the context of your own life, and to understand the people around you…

The Conformist / Diplomat Stage 3

This stage is a stage of integration. At the previous stage we have learned that others have a 1st person perspective of our self (2nd pp). But now, we learn to expand this…

Into the expanded 2nd person perspective.

Instead of focusing just on ourselves, we notice that we are similar to some people, and different to others. Some people have a similar 1st person perspective as we do. Other’s 1st pp differs. You can guess where this is going…

Us vs Them.

At this stage, we carve the world into good vs evil based on our similarities and differences to other group.

And group here, is an important keyword.

Our sense of self, our identity, our ego is not defined by us vs the world anymore. Rather, we identify us based on the groups we belong and don’t belong to. This is why this stage is called the conformist stage: Your group belonging is vital for your ability to make sense of the world…

I wanted to start with this stage, because I think it is important to understand a lot of the political climate going on at the moment.

A lot of people define themselves via their groups. Identity is based on how you look, what you believe, and who your “enemies” are. The term we usually use for this is polarization or tribalism.

The odd thing here is that it seems that we have regressed back into this stage to some degree.

Take the example of diversity, which is a hot debated topic at the moment. As we will see later, higher stages are genuinely interested and appreciative of diversity and human differences in general. Because we have more people at these higher levels, the discussion of such topics is more common in the broader culture.

The problem with this is that at this stage, diversity and human differences are not appreciated. They are merely a cognitive construct that your group has a specific belief about. And because your own identity is so strongly defined by the group you belong to, you feel it it very important to defend that belief…

Luckily, we are able to take a first step to break out of this with the next stage.

The Self-Conscious / Expert Stage 3/4

As the number (3/4) suggests, this is a stage of differentiation.

It’s where we become fully aware of our (apparent) separateness from other people. At this stage, we develop the 3rd person perspective.

What the 3pp is at its basic level is the ability to take a step back and look at yourself as an object of perception. Until now, you were always the perceiver. You could look at objects from your perspective. But now, you get the first inklings of the ability to take a different (the 3pp) perspective to look at objects from other perspectives. And because you are able to temporarily break out of your perspective, you yourself become an object from that new perspective…

This opens up a full new world of possibilities. Suddenly you are able to…

• Think abstractly

• Describe yourself abstractly

• Observe your own patterns of behaviour

This is where a first version of self-reflection comes alive. You start to see yourself as your own person and differentiate yourself from the groups you identified with before.

Usually, this leads to quite some uncertainty when it comes to the sense of self. Because this is only the first time you are able to look at yourself abstractly, this view of yourself is not very detailed and sophisticated yet… Which means that any attack on yourself or any evaluation of yourself from the 3pp is perceived as an attack as you as a person.

To make things worse, at this stage, you have fully integrated the rules of the culture and social settings you grew up in and cannot yet look at them as separate from yourself. You cannot yet question them. Thus, you are kind of stuck with thinking that you should do something and heavily criticising your entire sense of self when you don’t live up to these expectations…

But this changes at the next stage…

The conscientious or Achiever Stage 4

This stage is a stage of integration again.

We are now able to take a broader 3pp. Instead of just observing ourselves as an object in the present, we can start looking at ourselves across time.

From this expanded perspectives, a whole lot of new experiences, abilities, and ways of making sense of the world come alive…

Notice how this is the case for all the stages. All the characteristics basically derive directly from the perspective that is key to the particular stage in question…

At the conscientious / achiever stage, you likely are exploring your past and future a lot. You try to make sense of how your past has brought you where you are (present) and where you want to go in the future.

I want to remind you here that this theory of ego development is about how we (our ego) makes increasingly more complex sense of the world and our place and actions within it. So, at this stage, we are starting to make sense of ourselves across time. We are not just one person anymore. But like Jordan Peterson would say, you start to “treat yourself as a community across time”.

This is basically what our culture is currently aiming to develop its citizen to. This is the highest perceived aim of our society.

With the ability to think across time, you become great at adding economic value. You can start to learn from the past, integrate this learning in the present, to make a better future. In other words: you get great at working!

This is one of the fundamental burdens of being human. We are able to imagine all the horrors that might come in the future… and therefore work to prevent them.

But we can also do the reverse: we can imagine what great things the future could hold…

…and then aim towards them.

This is why this stage is called the achiever stage…

It’s all about defining yourself across time and the outcomes you are working towards. According to Cook-Greuter, this is what makes this stage the most financially successful stage (and why X is full of people at the Achiever stage).

But there is more…

With the next stage, we step from the conventional…

…into the post conventional.

The Individualist / Pluralist Stage 4/5

This is the first stage of the post conventional stages. We are now moving into territory that most people don’t reach (although, according to Cook-Greuter, this stage is still reached by about 11.3% of people).

The move from conventional to postconventional also marks a general change in the ego development trajectory from differentiation to integration. Although there are still differentiative stages (this is one of them) at the postconventional levels, the general trajectory now moves into increasing (re-)integration of perspectives.

Stage 4/5 is marked by the development of the 4th person perspective.

Like with the 3pp, you are now able to not only see yourself as an object, but you can see the process of looking at yourself as an object. Don’t worry if this sounds confusing. There is a reason why only about 10% of people reach this stage.

Basically what happens here is that you are able to become aware of the value/belief system that you have learned from birth on. With this awareness, you realize how much your perspective influences what you see as real or true.

As you can imagine, this can lead to quite some confusion and uncertainty. And it often leads to the idea that everything is relative – which is the perspective most vocally presented by post-modernism.

The problem with this is that the clear inconsistency of this argument is not yet perceived: If everything is relative because of the perspective we take, so is the perspective that everything is relative. But we cannot yet make this move… Like with the 3pp, we start out only being able to look at one value system and not an even larger context. This will come at the next stage.

In general, this stage can be expressed in two ways:

1. The Individualist

2. The Pluralist

The individualist takes the new found insight of relativity as motivation to go inward. The idea of objective reality dissolves. Scientific claims and measurements lose their power. And so, you turn inwards to the things you can know directly: your experiences and feelings.

This move can often lead to a differentiation away from the Achiever mindset and into the present moment. The coming and going of emotions and all other internal workings of the mind and body become increasingly fascinating.

The problem with this is that individualists can loose a bit of touch with reality. Not in the sense of complete dissociation. But they can become annoyed by routine aspects of everyday life… e.g., like having to work a job.

The second way of embodying this stage is the Pluralist.

Rather than going inwards, the pluralist focuses a lot on the external differences of people and how they make meaning. This leads to the genuine appreciation of diversity that I described above…

This can be a strength, especially if people are in leadership positions!

But it can also lead to an overshadowing of what we humans actually have in common. Hand this down to people at stages who don’t have your perspective ability and you have a whole lot of polarization…

Like with the other perspectives, the 4pp can be expanded, which happens at the…

Autonomous / Strategist Stage 5

This is the last stage that I am going to review here for two reasons:

1. This is already getting awfully long (thank you for sticking with me)

2. This stage is already stretching my understanding and I cannot say much about the later stages (yet)

With the Autonomous Stage 5 we are able to expand our 4pp. We are not only able to look at how our own context shapes our perspective on the world and makes things relative… We are also able to take on different temporal and cultural lenses.

This means people at this stage are much more advanced when it comes to making sense of reality than people at the previous stage.

The uncertainty and frustration that come from realising the intense relativity of our perspective and sense making is overcome by being able to contrast different perspectives and value systems. Making such contrasts allows us to better prioritise between different ways of looking at the world. The postmodern idea of “everything is equally relative” is overcome.

Simultaneously, this deepens the appreciation for one’s own experiences and the difference between people. Because of the increased temporal and geographical understanding, people at the Autonomous stage appreciate the different stages of development that they have gone through are necessary and that not everyone needs to be up at the stage that they are currently add (this is in contrast to the previous stage where a big part of one’s motivation is to get people to higher stages in the belief that this would make things better for everyone).

Taking such perspectives means that developmental thinking (e.g., the ability to not only see people at one point in time but to see them in the context of their history and potential futures) and systems thinking is internalised. Therefore, the autonomous person can think on a larger scale than previous stages and makes sense at a global level.

Yet, the autonomous individual is also better at detecting patterns at the small scale. Awareness and ability to detect differences in and facets of emotions increases even more, relative to the previous level.

Together with the global perspective this leads to self-determination and self-actualization becoming major goals. People more and more have a true identification with a life purpose and want to truly leave an impact. This is independent of what others think about this impact (so don’t confuse this with the idea of “I want to add value to make money” that is common at the achiever stage).

Still, or because of that, struggles with daily demands are present at this stage. The same disliking of 9-5s and other routine aspects of life are encountered like in the previous stage as the autonomous person would rather like to spend more time on fulfilling their purpose… This can sometimes go hand in hand with a sense of superiority, especially when they come together with people who are similar to them…

The Postautonomous Stages: Construct-/Ego-Aware & Unitive/Ego-Transcendent

As I already said, I will not write about these stages here because frankly – I don’t really understand them.

That is, I do get it from a rational perspective, but I only have very little or no actual experience that are like the type of experiences that characterise this stage.

But basically what happens is that at the postautonomous stages, people become truly aware of the constructed nature of knowledge and lean into trying to get at the bottom of whatever truth might be.

Simultaneously, they start realising that this is a futile attempt, because reality cannot be fully understood via rationality and language. As soon as you put it into a box, you lose something.

So, apparently, especially the Construct- and Ego-Aware stage can be somewhat confusing, although exhilarating at the same time… People are able to take larger and larger perspectives and get glimpses of observing the sense making process itself. That is, they don’t look at their previous level of sense making from an even higher level of sense making but are able to just be one with experience again. But this time conscious.

This is what happens at the unitive stage… People here can regularly tap into this full conscious union with reality.

I cannot say that I know what this means… After all, only about 0.5% of people reach this stage… And I am not one of them…

Yet (maybe) 😉 

This was A LOT of theory (and it wasn’t even all the stages).

So you might be asking…

How Is This Practical In Everyday Life?

The quote above says it all…

Usually, the problems that we experience in life arise because we don’t have the means to transcend them. Sure, we can learn to get better at business or in whatever career we have chosen, but this usually constitutes lateral development… Getting better at the stage that you are currently at.

The thing is that by now we know: Financial success is nice, but it won’t help you deal with the deep existential issues that every human being is facing.

So, the practicality of this model is that it gives you a framework of how you can invite vertical growth and ascend to higher stages of meaning making that might help you to overcome with the problems you are facing at the moment.

So, how can you make use of that?

Well, in the realm of Ego Development, there are two things that you can do to invite vertical growth (remember that you cannot force it)…

1. Focus on embodying the positive aspects of the current stage while overcoming the negative expressions of this stage.

2. Try to look two steps ahead. Try to understand how people two stages ahead of you see and act within the world.

Let’s have a look at them one by one…

Positive Embodiment of the Current Stage

Each stage has its positive and negative aspects…

So, what you can do is to

1. figure out what your main stage is

2. Learn what the positive and negative aspects of each stage are

3. Live to embody the positive and overcome the negative aspects

Below, I pasted a list of the very high level positive and negative aspects of each stage. Please note that this won’t be enough… You actually have to go through the paper yourself and highlight what aspects of what stages (both positive and negative) you can currently see in your own life. There is no quick fix for true growth after all…

1. Impulsive Stage 2

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Spontaneity and straightforwardness.

     • Immediate and honest expression of needs and desires.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Egocentric and impulsive behavior.

     • Lack of understanding of societal rules and consequences.

2. Self-Defensive (Opportunist) Stage 2/3

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Survival skills and self-protection.

     • Ability to take advantage of opportunities.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Hyper-vigilance and distrust of others.

     • Blaming others and volatile relationships.

3. Conformist Stage 3

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Conformity to social norms and rules.

     • Sense of belonging and loyalty to groups.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Dependence on external validation.

     • Suppression of individuality and fear of disapproval.

4. Self-Conscious Stage 3/4

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Awareness of one's own thoughts and feelings.

     • Striving for self-improvement and responsibility.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Over-concern with self-image and perfectionism.

     • Guilt and anxiety over mistakes.

5. Achiever Stage 4

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Goal-oriented and responsible behavior.

     • Ability to plan and achieve long-term objectives.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Over-identification with success and achievements.

     • Workaholism and neglect of personal relationships.

6. Individualist Stage 4/5

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Embracing individuality and unique perspectives.

     • Openness to new experiences and self-exploration.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Relativism and difficulty in making commitments.

     • Tendency to question and challenge authority excessively.

7. Autonomous (Strategist) Stage 5

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Strategic thinking and self-regulation.

     • Integration of multiple perspectives and self-authorship.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Overemphasis on personal autonomy.

     • Potential for manipulation and strategic self-interest.

8. Construct-Aware (Alchemist) Stage 5/6

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Deep self-awareness and insight into the construction of reality.

     • Ability to transform self and others through profound understanding.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Potential for existential anxiety and disorientation.

     • Difficulty in relating to those at earlier stages.

9. Unitive Stage 6

   • Positive Expressions:

     • Experience of unity and interconnectedness with all life.

     • Transcendence of ego and profound compassion.

   • Negative Expressions:

     • Risk of losing touch with practical realities.

     • Potential for misunderstanding or being misunderstood by others.

So, there you have a first orientation. But as I said: make sure to read the paper yourself. This is a task of a lifetime… Why would you want to cut corners on this?

Look Two Steps Ahead

The other thing that you can do is to look two steps ahead…

What is important to know about EDT is that you are not actually just at one stage. I personally think my homebase is somewhere between the Achiever and Individualist stage, but I can relate to aspects from the Self-Conscious to the Autonomous stage…

This is normal. And realising what stages you currently span can also help you to look ahead and invite these stages into your life.

Specifically, what I would recommend (again!) is to read the paper. Once you notice with which stage you can mostly identify, and where your ability to relate to at least some aspects of the higher stages stops, you can put more work into understanding the stage that is two stages above the one you currently feel most home at.

You can do a similar exercise to the one that we did above. Try to really put yourself into the shoes of the person who is two steps ahead.

How do their way of looking at the world differ from yours? What changes would need to occur for your perspective to become more advanced and invite the higher stages? How can you notice how this is expressed in your daily life and how can you try to act more like a higher stage individual in your life?

Do these things, and see what happens…

You will be surprised how much more you understand about yourself and the world just by reading the paper.

Wrap Up

That’s it.

This was a long one again…

And yet, just an introduction…

I gave you everything I can on this…

Thank you for sticking around so long!

Given that you made it here, you’ll love what I have planned for next week:

I’ll try to integrate my writings from the past 10 weeks into a single, executable framework…

But for now, the ego-development ball is in your court.

So Go and Do!

Much Success With It!

All the best,
Niklas