How to live in an orange society as a green individual?

[clouffy]

(on spiral dynamics)

So I've had a year-long abroad experience in a perhaps, greener society,

now I'm back to my home - a more orange society.

Been experiencing so much resistance towards this orange place, and slowly falling into depression.

How should one cope?

@Leo Gura

Edited December 27, 2018 by clouffy

[Joseph Maynor]

That's the story of most of my life so far.  Try to make money when you could care less about working for money.  I always wanted to be a philosopher.  The last thing I wanted to do in my life is work for money.  Other people seem to do that with such relish that I could never understand.  This reminds me of a story.  When I was going to college at UCLA there was a huge Borders bookstore in our college community, and I would spend a lot of time there.  I would spend hours looking at the books.  A lot of my college friends would swing by there -- it was a cool place to hang out, and there was an outdoor balcony that overhung the street, etc.  So, I loved Borders, everything about it.  Then I decided to apply for a job there.  And I will spare you all the details and just say that that ultimately ruined my whole concept of going to that store.  Sometimes when you turn a hobby into money you gotta think about that.  If I'm gonna be a personal development teacher at some point, which I'm planning on doing, I'm sure my feelings about personal development won't be the same after that.  Right now, I'm not getting paid to do any of this stuff, and it's all coming from the heart.  But once you take this pure thing and you monetize that into a job or career, the danger is you change something about the way that you feel about something that you would do for free.  I didn't need to work at Borders, I was fine just going there and hanging out -- I didn't need the money.  I thought that because I loved the store so much that working there would take that to the next level.  That didn't happen, quite the opposite in fact.  That greed to try to make a job out of that pure situation ruined it for me.  But at the same time, I do want to make a career out of Personal Development, so I'll have to navigate those waters very carefully.  The last thing I wanna do is ruin my natural passion for Personal Development by trying to make a buck.  That would be sad. 

Edited December 27, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Shadowraix]

You are starting to notice the problems with stage green, you work towards yellow.

[CreamCat]

4 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

The last thing I wanna do is ruin my natural passion for Personal Development by trying to make a buck.

Do you think Leo Gura ruined his personal development by making money out of it?

[clouffy]

@Shadowraix what do you mean by that? you mean yellow as all-encompassing so that a yellow individual would be able to live as an "outlier" in an orange society with ease? that's hard as hell

[Shadowraix]

4 minutes ago, clouffy said:

@Shadowraix what do you mean by that? you mean yellow as all-encompassing so that a yellow individual would be able to live as an "outlier" in an orange society with ease? that's hard as hell

Its about seeing it all as an integral whole. That everything has its place instead of resisting things that hasn't progressed to where you are now.

Society will progress higher or die trying, but it can't do so instantly. Its a transition. 

[clouffy]

@CreamCat  i think money is a means to show how much value you contribute to the world

just in the conventional 'convoluted' orange sense, it is a has a very egotistical connotation

[clouffy]

@Shadowraix any resource /threads you recommend for dealing with this? it's really frustrating looking from "above" (standing on green and looking down on orange...for lack of a better term "looking down" is only what i can conjure up for now haha)

[Leo Gura]

11 hours ago, clouffy said:

How should one cope?

It is what it is. Work on developing yourself. It doesn't matter what is happening around you really.

Take extreme ownership of your development. Stop expecting other people or your community to build you a staircase to heaven. Build your own staircase.

With all the books, videos, and resources available so easily today via the internet you have no excuse not to be at Turquoise. If you don't achieve it it's only due to one reason: you're being lazy and irresponsible.

You already have all the information. Why aren't you taking action? Why aren't you building a million dollar business? Why aren't you meditating 3 hours per day? Why aren't you working on your life purpose? Why aren't you developing powerful relationships? Why aren't you eating healthy? Why aren't you doing yoga? Why aren't you doing solo retreats?

Laziness

There is no cure for laziness but to get to work.

[ivory]

Similar story here. I lived in Portland OR for three years. A very green city, lots of yellows too. Now I'm back in Southern California. I decided to seek out the greens at meetups, yoga studios, zen centers, and couch surfing events. So far, I've met a lot of great people. I don't care what the rest of the world is doing as long as I have interesting friends to hang out with.

[Leo Gura]

@ivory Lol, Southern California is Green. Not Oregon Green, but still Green.

[Forestluv]

8 minutes ago, ivory said:

Similar story here. I lived in Portland OR for three years. A very green city, lots of yellows too. Now I'm back in Southern California. I decided to seek out the greens at meetups, yoga studios, zen centers, and couch surfing events. So far, I've met a lot of great people. I don't care what the rest of the world is doing as long as I have interesting friends to hang out with.

I lived in Eugene for five years. It's pretty much Green cultural immersion. The Emerald Valley. . . 

[Genghis Khan]

Stage Green is all about living a simple life and taking care of the Earth. If you are stage Green, then you are tired of punching the clock every single week to support a system that is destroying the environment and ruining your health and happiness. You're tired of contributing to a sick and corrupt system that encourages us to exploit and dehumanize each other all in the name of material comfort.

Why not cultivate a lifestyle that is true to your values? Go buy a farm in the countryside and plant some trees and crops. Grow some cannabis and chill out in the woods with some good friends. That's what I would be doing if I could. I don't consider myself to be in Stage Green, but it's still a far more appealing lifestyle than what Stage-Orange has to offer, at least according my own preferences.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Genghis Khan

[CreamCat]

1 hour ago, Genghis Khan said:

You're tired of contributing to a sick and corrupt system that encourages us to exploit and dehumanize each other all in the name of material comfort.

I think Orange guys are tired of that shit, too. It is tiring to everyone.

[clouffy]

@Leo Gura where do you think tokyo/ hong kong/ canada are at in terms of spiral dynamics?

[Leo Gura]

@clouffy Roughly Orange, Orange, Green. With lots of Blue still present in older generations.

[kieranperez]

@clouffy in case you live in the USA, here are some options for Green:

• San Francisco (Bay Area) - which is where I live. Granted, making 6 figures here pretty much makes you middle class. It is the SF Bay Area though. It's not the whole flower movement thing like it was in the past. It's definitely a combo of Green, Orange, and Yellow. Depending on what you're interested in and if you can afford to live here, this could really serve your development.
• Southern California - San Diego, LA, etc.
• Oregon: Particularly Portland but really the West end of Oregon. East is pretty conservative Blue. Other cities in Oregon that are Green are cities like Bend, Medford, and Ashland (big psychedelic scene where people like Martin Ball live)
• Boulder, Colorado
• Austin, Texas
• Seattle, Washington
• Hawaii
• New York City

Other than that, take Leo's advice in terms of your own individual development. 

[clouffy]

@Leo Gura i thought japanese culture was higher on the ladder tho, since they are so well mannered and considerate. should this social harmony be explained by the "blueness" of blind conformity/patriarchy or the "green" synergy and harmony as a society? hmmmm

[Brittany]

Go where tons of millenials live. LOL

And I am being serious. Go where millenials are the main population and you will see "green stage" elements.

[eleveneleven]

On 12/27/2018 at 0:59 PM, ivory said:

Similar story here. I lived in Portland OR for three years. A very green city, lots of yellows too. Now I'm back in Southern California. I decided to seek out the greens at meetups, yoga studios, zen centers, and couch surfing events. So far, I've met a lot of great people. I don't care what the rest of the world is doing as long as I have interesting friends to hang out with.

Yep, live there right now (Portland), can confirm. Probably the greenest place (with readily available yellow people) that I've ever been to in the United States. It was a huge culture shock because I came from the South.

To everybody else: If you live in the US and want to have a rich social life, but feel like the social drag of orange society is too much, I highly recommend moving to the Pacific Northwest, especially to a place like Portland. It's no substitute for doing inner work on yourself, but having people around who will actually support your personal growth instead of treating it as frivolous made a much bigger difference than I thought it would. My progress went into overdrive.

There's also your livelihood to consider. If you don't want to make money the way people in stage orange make money, it will be WAY easier to run an ethical business if you can readily hang out with and network with other green/yellow people. Green customers will also be easier to deal with because they actually want the experience you're providing. This is especially true if you have a weird life purpose.

The social component can be huge. They won't be your stairway to heaven, but they will help support you while you build it yourself--and, importantly, they won't throw rocks at you for it. And I'm saying this as a very introverted person who hides in my room 90% of the time.

Edited January 1, 2019 by eleveneleven