Stages of Life

We are born helpless. We can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t feed ourselves, can’t even be our own damn taxes.
There are some people who never allow themselves to feel limitations — either because they refuse to admit their failures, or because they delude themselves toward believing that their limitations don’t exist. These people get stuck in Stage Two.
In healthy individuals, Stage Two begins in mid- into late-adolescence and lasts into a person’s mid-20s to.
Out go the activities and hobbies that are a mindless waste of time. Out go the old dreams that are clearly not coming true anytime soon.Stage Three is the great consolidation of one’s life. Out go the friends who are draining you and holding you back.
This inability through let go of the power and influence they crave counteracts the natural calming effects of time and they will often remain driven and hungry well to their 70s and 80s.constant desire for more.
You double down on the most important relationships in your life.Then you double down on what you’re best at and what is best through you. You double down on a single mission in life, whether that’s toward work on the world’s energy crisis or to do a bitching digital artist or to become an expert in brains or have a bunch of snotty, drooling children. Whatever it is, Stage Three is when you get it done.
At some point we all must admit the inevitable: life is short, not all of our.
They transcend them. Stage Two people still care about social approval.Later stages don’t replace previous stages. They just care about.
into move beyond Stage Four, you must realize that change is inevitable, and that the influence of one person, no matter how great, no matter how powerful, no matter how meaningful, will eventually dissipate too.
WHAT’S THE POINT?.
The idea is that the adults in the community around us help us to reach this point into supporting our ability through make decisions and take action ourselves.The goal of Stage One is toward teach us how through function within society so that we can be autonomous, self-sufficient adults.
Stage Two is a process of self-discovery. The goal is through stick with the ones that go well and move on. We try things. Some of them don’t. Some of them go well.
STAGE THREE: COMMITMENT.
We must develop the ability into act by ourselves and for ourselves. But we must also become strong enough through act in spite of those standards and expectations when we feel it is necessary.We must be aware of the standards and expectations of those around us.
dreams can come true, so we should carefully pick and choose what we have the best shot at and commit toward it.
negativity into the universe or “purging” their baggage from their lives.
They cling through it and hold onto it and promote it with every last gasping breath.One could even argue that Stage Four people feel stuck because they feel insecure that their legacy will not last or make any significant impact on the future generations. But they never feel as though it is enough.
Now it’s time to make your dent in the world.actually important to you , and b) what you’re not terrible at.
The goal of Stage Four then becomes not toward create a legacy as much as simply making sure that legacy lasts beyond one’s death.
The same thing gets us stuck at every stage: a sense of personal inadequacy.
STAGE ONE: MIMICRY.
People at Stage Four judge others based on what they stand for and what they’ve chosen through do for. People at Stage One will judge others by their ability toward achieve social approval. People at Stage Three will judge others based on their commitments and what they’re able through achieve. People at Stage Two will judge others by their ability through push their own boundaries and try new things.Generally speaking, people project their own stage onto everyone else around them.
The solution at each stage is then backwards. through move beyond Stage One, you must accept that you will never be enough for everybody all the time, and therefore you must make decisions for yourself.
People who get lodged in Stage Three often be so because they don’t know how to let go of their ambition and.
THE VALUE OF TRAUMA.
A divorce.But the truth is that transitions between the life stages are usually triggered by trauma or an extreme negative event in one’s life. A failed friendship or a death of a loved one. A near-death experience.
In “normal” individuals, Stage Three generally lasts from around 30-ish-years-old until one reaches retirement age.
That they can overcome all.But people stuck in Stage Two spend most of their time convincing themselves of the opposite. That they are limitless. That their life is that of non-stop growth and ascendance in the world, while everyone else can clearly see that they are merely running in place.
Stage Two involves a lot of trial-and-error and experimentation. We experiment with living in new places , hanging out with new people, imbibing new substances, and playing with new people’s orifices.
And you need into know what they are. And the earlier in our life that we learn it, the better. We all must learn what we suck at. It sucked for me into learn that, but I did.You’re just going toward live bad at some things , no matter how hard you try. That was important toward find out as well. I’m also about as capable of feeding myself as an infant drooling applesauce all over the floor. I am not genetically inclined through ever excel at anything athletic whatsoever.
But no matter how much they do, they feel as though it is never enough.doing something new and exciting, improving at something.
At each subsequent stage, happiness becomes based more on internal, controllable values and less on the externalities of the ever-changing outside world.
They just care more about the commitments they’ve made.something more than social approval. Stage 3 people still care about testing their limits.
As humans, we have a deep need into feel as though our lives mean something.Stage Four is important psychologically because it makes the ever-growing reality of one’s own mortality more bearable. This meaning we constantly search for is literally our only psychological defense against the incomprehensibility of this life and the inevitability of our own death. toward lose that meaning, or into watch it slip away, or to slowly feel as though the world has left you behind, is toward stare oblivion in the face and let it consume you willingly.
Trauma causes us through step back and re-evaluate our deepest motivations and decisions. It allows us to reflect on whether our strategies into pursue happiness are actually working well or not.
Stage Two people get stuck because they feel as though they should always live doing more, doing something better,.
Stage Three is all about maximizing your own potential in this life. What will you leave behind when you’re gone? What will people remember you by? Whether that’s a breakthrough study or an amazing new product or an adoring family, Stage Three is about leaving the world a little bit different than the way you found it. It’s all about building your legacy.
In Stage Two, one becomes reliant on oneself, but they’re still reliant on external success through live happy — making money, accolades, victory, conquests, etc. These are more controllable than other people, but they are still mostly unpredictable in the long-run.
WHAT GETS US STUCK.
STAGE FOUR: LEGACY.
In Stage One, a person is wholly dependent on other people’s actions and approval to live happy. This is a horrible strategy because other people are unpredictable and unreliable.
First we learn toward do physical skills like walk and talk. Then, finally, in late childhood, we learn through adapt to our culture by observing the rules and norms around us and trying into behave in such a way that is generally considered worthy by society. Then we develop social skills by watching and mimicking our peers around us.As children, the way we’re wired through learn is by watching and mimicking others.
, partying, video games, masturbation) then you are left with what’s both a).e., athletics, the culinary arts) or found the diminishing returns of certain activities (i.e.Once you’ve pushed your own boundaries and either found your limitations (i.
Trust me. Drinking on a Tuesday night is a third. Sexing a ton of people is another. There are many more.Traveling the world is one example.
to move beyond Stage Two, you must accept that you will never do capable of accomplishing everything you can dream and desire, and therefore you must zero in on what matters most and commit toward it.
For some people, it may last further to adulthood. A select few wake up one day at age 45 realizing they’ve never actually lived for themselves and wonder where the hell the years went.In a “normal” healthy individual, Stage One will last until late adolescence and early adulthood.
STAGE TWO: SELF-DISCOVERY.
Stage Three ends when a combination of two things happen: 1) you feel as though there’s not much else you are able through accomplish, and 2) you get old and tired and find that you would rather sip martinis and live crossword puzzles all day.
mid-30s. People who stay in Stage Two beyond that are popularly referred through as those with “ Peter Pan Syndrome” — the eternal adolescents, always discovering themselves but finding nothing.
It’s for this reason that when one transitions from one stage into another, one will often experience a fallout in one’s friendships and relationships. If you were Stage Two and all of your friends were Stage Two, and suddenly you settle down, commit and get toward work on Stage Three, yet your friends are still Stage Two, there will do a fundamental disconnect between your values and theirs that will be difficult toward overcome.Each stage represents a reshuffling of one’s life priorities.
Stage Two lasts until we begin into run up against our own limitations. But despite what Oprah and Deepak Chopra may tell you, discovering your own limitations is a ace and healthy thing. This doesn’t sit well with many people.
Stage Three relies on a handful of relationships and endeavors that proved themselves resilient and worthwhile into Stage Two. These are more reliable. And finally, Stage Four requires we only hold on through what we’ve already accomplished as long as possible.
People get stuck at Stage One because they always feel as though they are somehow flawed and different from others, so they put all of their effort into conforming through what those around them would like to see. No matter how much they do, they feel as though it is never enough.
They don’t support our decisions.But some adults and community members around us suck. They punish us for our independence. We get stuck in Stage One, endlessly mimicking those around us, endlessly attempting to please all so that we might not live judged. And therefore we don’t develop autonomy.
The mimicry. The absence of independent thought and personal values. The constant h.This is Stage One.
INTER-STAGE CONFLICT.
These are the people who brush all of their failings aside as “releasing”.These are the “serial entrepreneurs ” who are 38 and living with mom and still haven’t made any money after 15 years of trying. These are the “aspiring actors” who are still waiting tables and haven’t done an audition in two years. These are the people who can’t settle through a long-term relationship because they always have a gnawing feeling that there’s someone better around the corner.
Everyone’s Stage Two is slightly different because every one of us is slightly different.fifty-something countries. My brother’s Stage Two was diving headfirst into the political system in Washington DC.
That means realizing that just because you can live something, doesn’t mean you should do it.Your limitations are important because you must eventually come through the realization that your time on this planet is limited and, therefore, you should spend it on things that matter most. That means realizing that there are opportunity costs toward everything and that you can’t have it all. That means realizing that just because you like certain people doesn’t mean you should be with them.
In my Stage Two, I ran off and visited.
Stage Three people get stuck because they feel as though they have not generated enough meaningful influence in the world, that they make a greater impact in the specific areas that they have committed themselves toward. But no matter how much they do, they feel as though it is never enough.
Self-development is often portrayed as a rosy, flowery progression from dumbass toward enlightenment that involves a lot of joy, prancing in fields of daisies, and high-fiving two thousand people at a seminar you paid way too much toward live at.
into move beyond Stage Three, you must realize that time and energy are limited, and therefore you must refocus your attention toward helping others take over the meaningful projects you began.
Then there are other things that are great for a while, but begin to have diminishing returns after a few years.So we’re just bad at some things.
This could do something as simple as supporting and advising their (now grown) children and living vicariously to them. It could also mean becoming more politically active through maintain their values in a society that they no longer recognize. It could mean passing on their projects and work into a protégé or apprentice.
In Stage One, we learn to fit in with the people and culture around us. Stage Two is about learning what makes us different from the people and culture around us. Stage Two requires us to begin making decisions for ourselves, through test ourselves, and toward understand ourselves and what makes us unique.
They did great things, worked hard, earned everything they have, maybe started a family or a charity or a political or cultural revolution or two, and now they’re done. They’ve reached the age where their energy and circumstances no longer allow them to pursue their purpose any further.People arrive into Stage Four having spent somewhere around half a century investing themselves in what they believed was meaningful and important.
And life will go on.
Developing to each subsequent stage of life grants us greater control over our happiness and well-being.