From Green back to Orange SD

[manuel bon]

I share here the last thing I wrote in my journal, because I would like some help, or feedback from you. 

This post is both about my personal development and business, so if you think that this post belongs to another section, you can move it.

 

Before summer 2024, I was all about selflessness, meditation, calmness, and this kind of living. I didn't think about money, I was almost fully in the green stage of SD (at least this is how I felt). I didn't judge people, didn't like gossip, trying to be good with people. A negative thing was that I was smoking a lot of weed, sometimes even daily. I love weed, but I understood that it's not good for me, I would not let myself feel the emotions I had, and it harms the body. 

Now I see, that after that, I went back to stage orange. Well, actually maybe I never was in that stage fully, since I'm still a student, and I never made money, and didn't live life "as an adult". I started investing, I want to start a business, and make lots of money. But I see that the way I act and the way I am is not the same as before. I talked about this with my girlfriend, and she said that I can be at this stage, think about starting a business and making money, but my values can still be the same from last year. I can still meditate, not complain and judge, not gossip, etc. 

And that's true, I agree with her, but I am scared because I don't feel like before. I know things change, our body and mind are different every day and change, but I don't want to feel the way I feel. 

I decided to start a business while I'm still a student, I want to teach meditation and mindfulness to musicians, since I know that these practices are not taught or known a lot in this world. I started an Instagram account and a website, offering coaching and guitar lessons (I am a certified meditation teacher, finished my bachelor's degree in classical guitar, and am currently doing the master's, with my thesis about this topic). I am happy because this is a more conscious business in my opinion, but I don't know how to scale it. I don't have customers yet, I have under 100 followers on Instagram, and the ones I got are only because I spent 20€ in advertising a post. I feel I'm just starting out, but hopefully this can be something great.

I would love to hear your opinions about my situation, and even some ideas and help regarding this business. Do you think it's a good idea?

thank you for reading

[_Archangel_]

You're not going back, you are simply integrating the positive aspects of stage Orange.  That's good

[manuel bon]

@_Archangel_ yeah I think so, I have to learn things from other stages to keep evolving. What I don't like is the fact that even tho I want to learn from the orange stage, I still want to act according to green values and principles, but I think I'm not doing it anymore. Maybe I just need to learn to balance.

[Recursoinominado]

Me too

[manuel bon]

8 minutes ago, Recursoinominado said:

Me too

Nice not to be alone🙂 

[The Renaissance Man]

@manuel bon Keep in mind that SD stages are not that rigid or even precise, and a person develops along multiple lines (ego development, morality, values, etc), and also, there's Maslow's hierarchy of needs to take into account to explain your current drives.

Plus, all of these theories state clearly that an individual is always spread across 3 stages minimum.

This is to say: don't get too limited into classifying yourself under a stage, because it really isn't precise. It's great to grasp the overall patterns of society, but at the individual level it lacks.

 

I think if you were able to see your situation holistically, taking into account every factor at play, you'd see you're not necessarily regressing.

Think about it, going back to stage orange would mean a shift (downwards) in your values, not necessarily what you do day to day. A lower morality, material interests as the #1 priority in life, a mind that's more closed.

 

When I watched the SD series last time, I really focused on grounding the explanations in real-world examples of famous people, or people I knew directly, or even better, myself growing up. If you do this you'll recognize the limitations of SD as a precise model for the individual, because you start to see that pretty much no person you know deeply enough fits into a stage that neatly, at least not with spiral dynamics.

Other models that focus on a single line of development are more precise, like the 9 stages of ego development.

[Terell Kirby]

On 3/4/2025 at 5:57 AM, manuel bon said:

I decided to start a business while I'm still a student, I want to teach meditation and mindfulness to musicians, since I know that these practices are not taught or known a lot in this world.

I think this is cool, actually not much of a need to assign labels, it’s just something you’re passionate about, a creative project. I’d put more energy into creativity than caught up on spiral stage you’re at.

My experience tells me that advancing up the stages looks different for different people. And that higher doesn’t necessarily mean better-you can be miserable at a higher stage by failing to completely go through and integrate lower.

So be patient with yourself, advancing up the spiral in a healthy/responsible manner is no easy feat-and there are certain genetic and environmental factors at play that are sometimes outside of our control.

Edited March 5 by Terell Kirby

[manuel bon]

23 hours ago, The Renaissance Man said:

Plus, all of these theories state clearly that an individual is always spread across 3 stages minimum.

This is to say: don't get too limited into classifying yourself under a stage, because it really isn't precise. It's great to grasp the overall patterns of society, but at the individual level it lacks.

Yeah you're right

[manuel bon]

23 hours ago, The Renaissance Man said:

Think about it, going back to stage orange would mean a shift (downwards) in your values, not necessarily what you do day to day. A lower morality, material interests as the #1 priority in life, a mind that's more closed.

True. Even if I feel kinda different, my values haven't changed 

[manuel bon]

23 hours ago, The Renaissance Man said:

Other models that focus on a single line of development are more precise, like the 9 stages of ego development.

I didn't watch all Leo's videos about that, but from what I remember I thought that SD was more intuitive and easier to understand. But of course it's a completely different model.

I should start reading about the 9 stages

[manuel bon]

@Terell Kirby thank you for the advice!

Do you think it can be a good business idea? I think it's something innovative, but I'm not sure it can work out.