This Is What Happened When I Looked at People Based on Their Level of Consciousness
It makes you understand people more and feel less frustrated.
Every person you meet has a different level of consciousness.
It was a huge mental shift when this realization hit me in the face.
We think about people’s progress based on how old they are. But age isn’t progress. Thinking is. You can be forty-years-old and think like a toddler. Your age doesn’t make you wise; your mind does.
Or we can think about a person’s progress in terms of how much money or stuff they have. But money doesn’t equal progress or intelligence. What if the way we saw people’s progress in life was completely wrong?
In my life, I now look at people based on these three levels of consciousness:
- Asleep at the wheel and lost in selfishness.
- Drifting in and out of consciousness.
- Seeing life as being about more than themselves. They feel they are a small part of something bigger and they consciously understand it.
When thinking about the people you bond with and want to be around, there are three pre-existing, woo-woo concepts: The law of attraction, a person’s level of positivity vs negativity — and the craziest — a person’s level of vibration (also known as their frequency). These ideas are hard to understand. ***Drops the mic and walks over to the whiteboard***
A Simple Explanation of Consciousness
Philosopher, Descartes, described consciousness precisely:
“I think, therefore I am.”
If you are thinking right now, then you are conscious. If you want to reach higher levels of consciousness then the way you think, and therefore the way you see the world, is the gateway to that place.
Another way of explaining consciousness is like this:
The state of being aware; awareness to both internal and external stimuli.
The Incas, who were the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, considered consciousness a progression not only of awareness but of concern for others as well.
A Practical Example of Consciousness
A couple of years ago I sat down for dinner to meet an important new customer. We were sitting at a steakhouse about to order dinner. I let it slip that I didn’t drink alcohol or eat meat. I could see in their eyes that they disagreed with my choices.
As the night wore on, they asked me why. I told them about my near-miss with cancer as being a driving force in my life and a reason to be healthy. I could instantly see that they didn’t approve of the courage and vulnerability it took to share that fact. They thought it was silly. They stopped talking to me.
It became apparent that they didn’t think sharing feelings was “manly.”
The rest of the night continued on. He spoke a lot about football, chasing women in foreign countries, and being wined and dined by important people. I didn’t get him and he didn’t get me. I was frustrated by it. This relationship was crucial to my career.
A few weeks later, he sent out a generic email to everybody on his work email list. I was on it. The email was asking for donations to help a charitable cause that supported cancer. I sent a generous donation and a short email to him.
“Mate, great cause to support. I sent you a donation and think what you’re doing is noble — keep it up. This charity is close to my heart, given the near-miss with cancer I shared with you over dinner.”
Radio silence. Nothing.
Then a few weeks passed. I find out that he thought my email was ridiculously stupid and that’s why he didn’t respond. He didn’t ask me to attend any more meetings. I was frustrated and angry.
A different level of consciousness
A few more months in, I got to meet another important customer. Given my screw up with the first one, I was a little more reserved this time around.
I reached out to him to begin the relationship. He was nice but didn’t seem overly interested in working with me. I kept at him to see if I could make a connection. As part of my research I learned that he was obsessed with how someone thought when he conducted interviews.
He would test their thinking, not their skills or experience. This struck me as an odd approach.
I tried to speak with him again and this time he finally accepted. We had a phone call and there was an instant bond. The conversation weaved in and out and covered many topics, from technology to psychology. The job he worked at was more than a job for him. He was clearly thinking well beyond building a new product, and into the future.
There seemed to be an obsession with a higher cause.
It was at that moment that I realized he was living his life at a higher level of consciousness than the previous guy who refused to try and understand me.
The domino effect
A friend of mine asked me about a new member that had joined their startup. They were taking some time off and their replacement was learning the ropes. Their thinking was “well, my replacement seems sh*t so I guess they won’t make it — survival of the fittest.”
I said something rather odd. (The 2011 version of me wouldn’t say this.)
“But if they fail then it affects us all. Let’s play this one out. You refuse to help them, nobody else helps them in your team, and then they fail and lose their job during this rough economic time.
Seems harmless, I guess.
A few months later they are unable to find a job and lose their home. This forces them out on to the street. They start hanging around the wrong people and make a split decision to take heroin.
One night while being completely out of their mind, they stab a stranger in the street for $50 and accidentally kill them. That stranger is the father of two children. One of those children goes to school with your best friend’s kid. Your best friend tries to care for that kid and it breaks their heart to see what they have to go through. They come to you for help.
What looks like it’s not your problem, becomes your problem somewhere down the line. Because all of your actions have a ripple effect.”
When someone loses, you lose too. It’s a domino effect. In the future, somewhere, you will get punched in the face as a result of their loss. So what if you prevented that from happening? Their struggle is your future problem.
You treat people differently when your level of consciousness reminds you of the ripple effect attached to every one of your actions.
You Are an Onion with Layers
As you peel back the layers you find deeper levels of consciousness.
There is your need to survive.
There is your need to pursue your selfish desires.
There is your need to feel significant.
There is your fragile self.
There is your vulnerable self.
There is your connected self.
There is your awareness.
There is your awareness of others.
Every layer of the onion that is you is fascinating — stunning, even. As you learn to become aware of these layers and peel them back one by one, you find yourself reaching deeper levels of consciousness. It’s a surreal experience for those who dare to journey into the unknown.
When you’re ready, take a look into the vastness that is your self.
To Write Is to Think
Another way to explore your consciousness is to write down your thoughts. As you see your thoughts on a computer screen, they look different.
Your version of reality starts to warp.
Writing forces you to arrange your thoughts.
And when those thoughts are going to be shared with others, the writing becomes even clearer and so does your thinking. The writing eventually transcends you because it’s no longer for you anymore. Therefore, you are consciously thinking for others rather than yourself.
When It Comes down to It, What Do We Even Know?
This is a question that makes you think deeply.
Your level of awareness about your reality evolves when you contemplate the idea that perhaps you and everybody around you knows nothing at all — or knows very little.
So if we know very little, what does that say about consciousness and the level of our current thinking? Is that an opportunity?
Signs of Consciousness
If I was to draw you a picture of what a higher level of consciousness looks like then it would be a picture of you that looks like a tree. Out the bottom of your feet would be roots that go into the ground. Those roots extend deep into the earth and come out at many different points around the planet.
The roots of your “self” are connected to everything.
Here are a few other signs of consciousness to look out for:
- A rejection of the norm
- A seriously warped view of time
- A connected approach to every goal
- A strange and bizarre understanding of love (not the corny type)
- A lower sense of one’s self
Your Level of Consciousness Decides Who You Connect With
The whole point of understanding consciousness and the level of consciousness people have is because it decides who you connect with and who you don’t.
A person who is unconscious and worships themselves is not going to connect, bond, or build rapport with a person who is living at a high state of consciousness where they don’t see themselves as being at the center of their reality. This doesn’t mean, though, that your level of consciousness is a trophy or a reason to label people as inferior to you.
You discover your level of consciousness as you journey through life. Some people discover early on what it really means to live, and some people wait until their deathbed to understand the meaning of consciousness and just how unimportant most of what we focus on is.
Every day you journey out into a world full of humans. Being deliberate about understanding a person’s level of consciousness allows you to avoid becoming frustrated or angry when you don’t get along with someone.
At the same time, when you meet someone who is on the same level of consciousness, or slightly higher than you, it’s an incredible experience. You won’t forget those people, and what you can do together will surprise you.
I use social media as a tool to attract higher levels of consciousness.
I want to meet people who are more conscious than me and so I deliberately share things from my research on the subject, that might bring them into my life and help them find me.
Now you have an idea as to why you don’t bond with everybody you meet. Every day you are meeting people who have different levels of consciousness.
The opportunity for you is to work on your level of consciousness.
- Practice deep thinking.
- Write your thoughts down.
- Question your reality.
- Learn about psychology.
- Speak with people who intrigue you.
- Wonder, frequently, what it’s like to be connected to something bigger than yourself.
As you reach higher states of consciousness, your life will radically change and so will the lives of those around you.
