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Our path through life is a spiral,
Rather than a straight line.
The reason it’s a spiral is that we are faced with the same type of impasse multiple times as we move through life. For example, we learn to share in kindergarten. However we need to further hone those skills as we move through each stage in life and the stakes are higher, say with a spouse and/or business partners.
As we grow older and more experienced, we cycle through our spirals faster and also have more concurrent spirals existing in our lives.
While external stimuli and situations vary, we are all fighting a similar battle against the self. The more you learn to understand your internal steps toward success, the better you’ll navigate any external situation. In a broad sense, here is what I consider the main recurring checkpoints in the spiral of life, a career, or even a simple task.
Newbie
Be it our entrance into the world or deciding to learn a new skill – we all start completely fresh. We know nothing. At this point, whatever the boss says goes. We are simply absorbing information and open to mimicking or following step by step instructions.
Eager To Prove
We have some skills under our belt, but we recognize we’re not top dog. There is more to learn and advantages to pleasing our superiors. We are working not just for our own vision, but for someone else’s.
Rebel
Here is the stage where we think we know best and are very interested in proving that fact. While that might be the case, and it is good to chase our own vision, we still hit some hard setbacks and humbling moments.
Mediocre
We’ve put our rebellious ways behind us and have also learned quite a bit. We see the usefulness in collaborating with those above and below us. We’re comfortable where we are, but something is lacking. We know that inorder to make it to the next level we need to risk what we have and make a daring leap.
Successful
We took the leap and it paid off. We’ve made it. We’re incredibly happy and grateful for our success until…
Bored
We get bored and used to it. Similar to when we were in our mediocre stage, things have become easy and routine and this time, we’re already at the top. This is what we’ve been working so hard for? We feel duped.
Master
Already at the top, we realize the best thing to do is to help those below us. We begin to mentor and share. We lift up others and by doing so grow the size of the hill on which we stand.
Everything is great and then the industry changes, or we change our focus, or something completely unpredictable happens. We’re The Newb all over again :).
Thanks for reading. This is a broad, simplified framework, but I hope you can apply it to various situations in your life and be better able to see where you need to take leaps, help others, and ultimately raise us all higher.
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Have you read the original anthology that was the catalyst for The Good Men Project? Buy here: The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood
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Photo courtesy iStock.