How can I view myself from a higher perspective?

During a conversation at dinner last night, we stumbled upon a place that we all know is true: it is easier to see blind spots and opportunties for others than it is for ourselves.

While this is the core foundation of coaching and outside leadership, there is so much value to cultivating that skill internally as well. One of my main goals in working with leaders is to help them improve their self-assessment and understand what can be seen so easily from the outside.

This ties directly in with my favorite principle from Ray Dalio's book:

"Look at the machine from a higher level."

If we use Ray's analogy of our bodies as machines, we have a higher self that has the ability to write the code and make the decisions for this machine. Other times though, we let the machine overwrite the rules. We may have too much to drink, skip the gym, not get enough sleep, procrastinate at work on something important. Our higher self knows that all of these things are in our long term best interest, but the machine responds with a hard "Nope!"

How can I best design the system so that the machine is happy, satisfied, and satiated while allowing my higher self to be running the show?

It starts with a radical self-assessment and understanding the wants, needs and desires of the machine. If I neglect the human for long enough in pursuit of the path of the higher self, the human revolts and things break down. That's how I've tended to operate in the past. Long periods of high accomplishment followed by the crash.

Once I intimately understand the machine, it is then possible to design a life that allows the machine to feel like it's getting everything it wants while operating from the higher self.

I realized that this is a pretty far out there concept, and I'm still at the beginning steps of embracing this myself. I look forward to sharing more as I find the symphonic balance between the machine and the higher self.