Using the 9 levels of Cook-Greuter to Self-Actualize

[Paulus Amadeus]

Hi All, 

 

I check this forum pretty much every day, but I haven't posted anything on here in a long time. 

Since Leo's last 3 video's I have gotten really excited about Cook Greuters EDT model (Ego Development Theory).

I think it's a really beautiful and helpful model and I think the model can be super powerful for self-actualizing. So after reading the original article twice, I've come up with a list for myself. In the list I list:

1. the attributes of each stage that are currently active in me

2. what my 'percentage' in the stage is

3. what I can do to integrate and transcend the stage in question.

 

Here is the list I came up with: 

It's a pretty long document. But it might be interesting for some of you to see the workings of the psyche of a fellow Actualizer on the path.  

 

 

Achiever: 25%

• I can be a harsh critic of myself when things are not working out
• Seeing results and getting rewarded is an important way to get affirmed for me
• The drive to achieve and succeed can lead to overexhaustion
• I have an urgent sense that time is fleeting
• I can suffer depression from not having fulfilled goals and ideals
• I can put a lot of importance in the completion of small short term goals, instead of looking at the long trajectory. 
•  

How to embody and transcend

• I shall get even more clear on what I really want instead of looking at short term goals like getting laid or making some money. These goals are ideally stepping stones that are to be enjoyed, not important goals in their own right. 
• create safety in terms of money, sex, friends etc so worrying about ‘normal’ succes is diminished 
• Observe carefully when criticizing myself
• See how there are certain aspects of my life that I can’t control

 

Pluralist: 25%

• I Can be triggered by hyper rationalism
• I can increasingly see how the values of my upbringing and culture have programmed me and others
• I know how to consciously scrutinize my beliefs
• I can sometimes not appreciate the gift of the lower levels
• I feel a split between old levels of being and new levels of being
• I can feel that I have many contradicting voices in me

 

How to embody and transcend

• Think deeply about why all the lower stages are necessary
• Scrutinize my own beliefs more! Think about belief and facts more.
• Heal the split between the old levels and the new levels by journaling and doing shadow work etc
• Let the different voices in me speak and communicate with eachother 

 

Strategist: 45%

• I can be able to integrate many different aspects of myself
• I make meaning independent of conventional ideas
• I worry about not treating people with dignity and respect, and the right for self-determination
• I have a systems view of the world and self
• I have high ideals but I am also realistic about what it takes
• I realise the need to the most I can be in order to be of service to others
• Wanting to help others evolve is one of my strongest motivations
• I recognise natural hierarchies in life
• I think higher development is always better
• I want to “become the most one can become”. 
• I think good company, intimate relationships, good occupation and chances for self-actualization are essential for a meaningful existence
• I accept self and other as complex human beings with both positive and negative traits
• I am occasionally blind to the transformer’s own identification with and self-importance in being a “transformer.”
• I become dissatisfied with their lives when they feel they have not fulfilled their unique human promise or when they have not lived up to the greatness they expect of themselves.

 

How to embody and transcend

• Dive deeply into loving and open relationship
• Create a career that helps people evolve
• Do industrial grade self-actualization
• Let go of identification with being a transformer
• have mystical experiences
• become more aware with paradox and ambiguity in life

 

construct aware and ego aware 5%

• I feel that having an ego which craves clear boundaries and significance and unceasingly tries to create them is a constraint to further growth and understanding.
• I am sometimes aware of how the constant and automatic judging habit of what is good and what is not creates much of the unhappiness and striving for betterment so prevalent in ordinary waking consciousness
•  “Here my ego goes again despite knowing better” is a sentiment I experience daily

 

How to embody and transcend

• observe how projection and language creates my reality
• Start to see more and more deeply how limited the endavour of map-making is
• See deeply how the ego is constantly creating itself through language and thoughts
• Become more aware of how constantly labeling and judging is creating a lot of suffering and unhappiness. 
• Start to think more about concepts as ‘knowing’ ‘language’ ‘proof’ etc. 
• Have mystical experiences. 

 

I got my work cut out for me