The Only Thing to Do - by River Kenna - In•Star

Exhaustion is the most important part of human development, and almost every discussion leaves it out. Any example will do — let’s take Robert Kegan’s developmental psychology. Here’s a diagram that gets at how people tend to think of it: Each stage builds on the one before it, becoming something greater that transcends and includes the stage before it. Each stage comes with a new benefit, a transformed way of perceiving and acting in the world. You develop further, and you get more of these benefits, you add them to the pile. You unlock the next level. But here’s the thing: those understandings and benefits listed at each stage — reaching the point where you have those doesn’t mean that you’ve completed the stage. It means you’ve started it. A lot of discussions mistake this, saying something like “yeah, I’ve researched stage 4, and that seems about where I’m at. Time to start working on stage 5!” Which is very precisely wrong. Wherever you are, right now is the time to start working

Exhaustion is the most important part of human development, and almost every discussion leaves it out. Any example will do — let’s take Robert Kegan’s developmental psychology. Here’s a diagram that gets at how people tend to think of it: Each stage builds on the one before it, becoming something greater that transcends and includes the stage before it. Each stage comes with a new benefit, a transformed way of perceiving and acting in the world. You develop further, and you get more of these benefits, you add them to the pile. You unlock the next level. But here’s the thing: those understandin