“You have achieved an “8 life”, now you are about to learn how to break out of this level of satisfaction and go for the “10 life”
What I mean by that is… Let’s take all the pieces of our lives and rate them on a scale of satisfaction, between 1-10, 1 being least satisfied, 10 being most. If the average nonscientific end result score is about an 8, then we have what I call the “8 life”. The “8 life” is a pretty damn good life. Most people would kill for the “8 life”. It is solid, it is set, it is well maintained and cared for, with enough money and stuff to make us comfortable. Inside the “8 life” we have just enough to make us feel really scared at the thought of loosing it. We are attached to what we have and how we have it. It’s also a life that afford us to ask the question “what else do I want?” or ‘is this all there is to it?” or “things are good, but i am wanting something more, what is that?”
This is the place of good news and bad news. The good news is we have life pretty good!! We have achieved a lot and have reached a certain level of success and comfort that is working for us. The bad news is it is really hard to break out of it to go for a “10 life”. Our body will constrict and our mind will scream at the thought of shaking things up and risking everything we have or know.
If we had rated our lives at a 6 or a 7, we feel the pain of the need to change much sharper. The pain of our circumstance is more compelling for us to address and do something about it. The “8″ life doesn’t have sharp pain. It has a dull pain and it’s in the back ground. The kind of pain that we can tolerate for a long time. And the thought of doing something about it, sometime can be more painful than living with the dull ache as is. It is much easier to just keep paddling and keeping things as is.
I have more bad news 
Or maybe not bad news but warnings…
To break out of the “8″ life and go for a “10″ life, it sometimes can be violent and disturbing to our ego-system. We have to be willing to shatter our circumstances, to break our current thinking and comfort zone, walk away or cut the ball and chains that we have carefully set up in our lives to keep things steady and safe. All of these verbs that I just used are action verbs with disturbing consequences. AND there is no guarantee that we will succeed. People with the “8″ life like to buy insurance and have guarantees. Because we now have enough assets that if we loose it, it will be painful. We like to protect and demand guarantees for everything we have. And if we ask ourselves to change, there is a part of our brain that will scream out “what if it wont work?” and “How do we know we will succeed?”
When we reach for a “10″ life, there is no guarantee. In fact we can plan on going into the muck, turning things upside down for what may seem like a long time, getting really confused and doubting ourselves and the process, AND perhaps “loosing or letting go” of everything. All, so that we can find that thing that we are looking for.
And that thing that we are looking for is US. The new and improved ME in each one of us. The ME that have been tested, stretched, pulled and being close to destruction, that phoenix-ME rising out of our ashes. When we find that ME in each one of us, that is the “10 life”, and it is worth every drop of sweat, blood, and tears that we shed.
This complexity applies at the work place for leaders too. Think of this at a personal leadership level, and at the organizational level. This same trap is very real for executives to face everyday. And how often do you settle for the “8 Life” = good enough, instead of the “10 LIFE” = everybody rocking and rolling with the organization.
Having been there, done that, both the personal and professional levels, I say this with deep sincerity, “GOOD LUCK!”
