happiness

I don't think I've ever made it to level 5. I've been within sight of level 4 - then always, there's a crisis that sends me back to level 3.

One way for me to look at this is to wonder if I create my own crises, as a way to avoid levels 4 and 5.

But then, in some ways, I think the pyramid is not always a good illustration of our attainment of levels in life. I sometimes think it's more like the tides, at the beach.

Sometimes, you get a very big wave that comes in and pushes you all the way to level 4. You've got the basics covered, you live in a safe neighborhood, have friends and family and a love relationship, and you get ambitious and actually achieve something. And you do.

And then the tide goes out again.

Sometimes, there's an even bigger wave (think tsunami) and you are forced to do the inner work and reevaluate everything you ever thought you knew about yourself. You learn some life lessons that you can't unlearn. It sucks worse than anything has ever sucked. But when you look back on it - it was a horrible time in your life, but you are a better, stronger, wiser person for it. And it happened because life forced you to do some level 5 activity.

And then the tide goes out again, and you rebuild. And often, you forget some of what you learned when the tide washed you up to level 4 or level 5. But I think in most cases, you do manage to retain some of the knowledge.