The Ultimate KPI

The average person shifts less than 1% on the scale of human consciousness in their entire life

Last week I wrote a letter to someone on my team who's also become a mentor. He has this rare gift among high achievers where he somehow escaped the aggressive pursuit of self-worth through performance. Maybe it was all the time he spent with his dad. Maybe it has to do with how easily life comes to him with anything he pursues. He has this great blend of all-star swagger mixed with humility and innocence that enables him to experience joy at an enviable level. He's already at a place in life to do the things he wants simply because he wants to despite not yet being financially free.

The Map of Life: Prison and Freedom

It reminded me of something I'd recently read about in the book 10x Is Easier Than 2x: Dr. David Hawkins' Map of Consciousness, a framework developed over decades and applied to hundreds of thousands of people. He identifies where people operate emotionally and spiritually, from 20 (shame) all the way to 1000 (enlightenment).

Guilt is at 30, apathy is at 50, fear 100, anger 150. At 200 and above people are operating from positive emotions. 200 is courage, acceptance is 350, love is 500, 540 is joy and peace is 600.

Where are you? Honestly?

Hawkins concluded that the average person only moves 5 points on this scale in their entire life. Five points. In an entire lifetime. He concluded over 80 percent of the world's population operates between fear (100) and anger (150). Most people never make it beyond being driven by fear or anger.

Imagine for a moment his framework is true and consider the implications. Most people you know, most clients, residents, employees, vendors you do business with, most people in your family are living their entire lives trapped between being afraid and being pissed off.

Some people, however, move hundreds of points in a short amount of time. Why? Facing the truth about ourselves is apparently more painful than dying. Hawkins says "The attainment of wisdom is slow and painful, and few are willing to relinquish familiar, even if inaccurate, views. It would seem most people are willing to die rather than alter those belief systems which confine them to lower levels of consciousness."

Most people would rather die than change the story they tell themselves about who they are and what's possible.

Your Biggest Impact Isn't Doing, It's Being

But when someone does break free, when someone actually moves up this scale, the impact is staggering. Again, according to Hawkins:

One person living and vibrating at the energy of optimism and non-judgement (310) will counterbalance the negativity of 90,000 people at the lower weakening levels.

One person vibrating at the energy of pure love and reverence for life (500) counterbalances the negativity of 750,000 people at the lower weakening levels.

One person vibrating to the energy of illumination, bliss, and infinite peace (600) will counterbalance the negativity of 10 million.

One person vibrating at grace, pure spirit beyond body (700 to 1000) will counterbalance 70 million.

Becoming who we are actually meant to be doesn't just change your life. It changes the world. Literally. Mathematically. Spiritually.

This should be our ultimate KPI. This should be the OKR that matters more than revenue, more than scale, more than any metric we're tracking in our businesses. Personal transformation as the great work. Character development as the real competitive advantage.

Because here's what I think is really happening: Most of us are terrified of how powerful we actually are. Marianne Williamson nailed it: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us."

We're afraid of our own magnificence. We're scared of what it would mean to actually step into who God created us to be. So we stay small. We stay stuck between fear and anger. We build businesses that keep us busy instead of transformed.

‘No Cap’

I hear some of you pushing back already. Is this framework too abstract? Is this just a vague distraction from actual measurable results? A convenient excuse to soothe my conscience from the hard grind of growing revenue and profit? We need concrete action and measurable results, not mystical scorecards, right?

Our property management businesses can't outgrow our leadership. Who we become leads what the business becomes. What if the real work, the work that changes everything, is exactly this? What if the most practical thing you could do for your business, your family, your legacy is to find a way of actually looking at yourself in the mirror and facing the (apparently painful) truth and asking for help on changing? What if that was the only thing that actually mattered?

You are already free. You are already powerful beyond your comprehension. The only question is whether you're brave enough to believe it and live like it's true.

This is the ultramarathon of life. Not the sprint to the next revenue goal or the next acquisition. The long, slow work of becoming who you were created to be.

In the race with you, Mark