Business Life & Skills »

What’s your reason for being? Are you constantly learning from your environment to improve yourself? Have you created a near-impenetrable support system? Are you taking your career success for granted? Do show compassion to others in times of crisis? These are fundamental questions that this series hopes to help you answer for yourself.

But first, why does the hierarchy pyramid have six levels? Were there criteria for each level? Similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, each level is built on the preceding one. I tend to think in terms of frameworks and paradigms like Venn diagrams, pyramids, and other tools that help me process my thoughts.

After I wrote the rules down on note cards, I moved them around to see a pattern, and then realized that my rules fell into these six categories:

• Level 1: Rules for Our Fundamental Nature
• Level 2: Rules of Continuous Learning and Modeling
• Level 3: Rules for the Actual Journey
• Level 4: Rules of Adapting to Environment and Interacting with Others
• Level 5: Rules of Humility
• Level 6: Rule of Being

Level 1: Rules for Our Fundamental Nature

The first layer reflects the basic requirements that me must understand and incorporate why we’re here, what we’re supposed to do with our life, why we think we have free will or not, why we need to be proactive in life and work, why being good isn’t over rated, and why we should always help others.

Level 2: Rules of Continuous Learning and Modeling

The second level discusses how to nurture your need to strive for self-improvement; become aware of oneself that includes one’s traits, feelings, and behaviors; accept responsibility of your actions and their consequences; and being a source of strength for others.

Level 3: Rules for the Actual Journey

Built on continuous learning, the third level provides rules for the journey itself. There are times when we don’t know how to get to where we need to be. Sometimes we need to adjust or tweak the journey itself.

It also recommends that we create and nurture a support system of friends and family that helps you along the way. Also, this journey is riddled with challenges because we’re either an extrovert or an introvert.

Level 4: Rules of Adapting to Environment and Interacting with Others

The fourth level outlines why we must adapt and strategically interact with others. Of course, this level relies on level 2, where we’ve learned and incorporated self awareness, so we can admit our weaknesses and be honest about how the journey hasn’t turned out as planned. In being self aware, we can course correct.

While we’re adapting to life, we face challenges of interacting with others. Some people may use power plays over us in life and work. This level recommends that the best defense is a good offense by mastering our emotions and using body language to our advantage.

Read the full story »