Self-Coaching Tool: The Pyramid of Logical Levels by Robert Dilts
A simple framework that will help you to transform your life
🎧 Listen to it here:
The Pyramid of Logical Levels is a model developed by Robert Dilts, a pioneer in the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
The pyramid is a hierarchical representation of the levels at which change can occur in an individual. This is probably my favorite tool in my coaching toolbox.
You’ll understand how the pyramid works as we go. So let’s just dive in.
Take a piece of paper, and draw a triangle. A pyramid. Then split the triangle with horizontal lines so that it has 6 separate levels.
This is what it looks like:
These levels (bottom to top) are:
- Environment
- Behavior
- Skills
- Values/Beliefs
- Identity
- Spirituality (Mission)
Now, let me walk you through all 6 levels starting from the bottom one.
Level 6. Environment
This level is your physical reality. You can think of it as the physical and social context in which you exist. Everything from the physical environment to social relationships, and even your own body sits at this level. This is where most people want to see the changes happen.
At this level you will have:
- Your environment (climate, country, city, the home you are living in, etc.)
- Your relationships (friends, family, your partner, your business partners, your team, co-workers, community, your social circle, etc.)
- Your career (the industry you are working in, your company, company culture, location, office setting, your own business, your side hustles, etc.)
- Your money (and everything that money can buy: your house, car, clothes, material possessions, food, entertainment, your brightness of life, etc.)
- Your body. As a person, you live within your body. You probably had that thought before that you appear to be some sort of being that lives within the body and is looking at the world through your eyes from the depth of your skull. In a sense, your body is your only home. Your vessel. You are a Ghost in the Shell. Consider any goals related to the physical changes in the body, such as getting in shape, to also be at this level.
So the Level of Environment is normally the level where people want to see change.
The ultimate driver of human behavior is creating the ultimate human experience.
Since we experience reality through our 5 senses logically our mind works to optimize toward what we think the ultimate human experience is for us.
Getting fit. Moving to the city that we think is the best for our growth. Developing relationships that give us fulfillment and a sense of connection. Building a career that gives us meaning, money, and freedom.
Whatever your goals are at this level, what do you think you need to do to induce change at the Level of Environment?
You need to change your Behavior. And this is our Level 5.👇
Level 5. Behavior
To change your physical environment you have to take action. To get outcomes that are different from your current results you need to exercise a different behavior.
The Level of Behavior includes:
- Your actions
- Your reactions
- Your responses
- Your habits
- Your Daily Systems
- Your morning routine
- Your body language
- Your communication skills
- The way you show up in the world
- The way you read other people
- The way you influence other people
- The language you apply to yourself
- The language you apply to the world
I emphasize the last two because they are connected directly to the concept of NLP. The language that you apply toward yourself and the world is programming your mind to have a certain perception of self and perception of the world. In other words, your reality is what you think it is.
Let’s zoom in a little bit on this.
You have probably heard before about the Law of Attraction.
The Law of Attraction is a philosophy that suggests that positive thoughts bring positive results into a person’s life, while negative thoughts bring negative outcomes.
And this is true to an extent but most people misunderstand how exactly this law should be applied in their lives.
First. You don’t experience reality. However, what you DO experience is your own thoughts. Then it gets very simple really. Think good thoughts — have a good time inside your mind. Think negative thoughts— have a bad time.
Second. Your thoughts elicit your emotions. Driven by your emotions you make decisions and take action. Some emotions lead you to a decision to not take any action. Both taking action and not taking action lead to certain outcomes.
And this is where we can introduce another more practical law — the Law of Action.
The Law of Action requires that you DO SOMETHING to manifest the things you want.
Implications for you:
To be = to do. To have different outcomes you have to take different actions.
But what is limiting our ability to take action or exercise the desired behavior?
This is our next level.
Your Skills.
Level 4. Skills (or Capability)
You can only exercise the behavior if you have the skill/capability to do it. Obviously. You cannot exercise the behavior if you don’t have the skills. For example, you can’t make an app if you don’t know how to code.
The range of actions/behaviors that you can exercise is limited by the scope of your skillset.
So this level represents an individual’s skills and abilities. It includes things like:
- Knowledge
- Expertise
- Competence.
- Hard Skills (aka Technical skills)
- Soft Skills (aka Foundational/Human/Transferrable Skills)
So what are the main implications for you at this level:
- Self-awareness is of absolute importance. It’s important to understand what skills you have, what skills are underdeveloped, and what skills you need to acquire to manifest the desired reality. Please note, when I use the word “manifest” there is no metaphysical connotation to it. Manifesting simply means taking action in order to change the physical environment.
- Awareness of your Skill Gap will drive your Skill Acquisition Strategy. After you have completed your full Skills Audit and identified the skill gap you can start building your learning plan. Ask yourself. What are the capabilities that you need to acquire that stand between you and your Vision?
- Knowledge-related implication. We don’t know what we don’t know. Your current understanding is limited by your current knowledge. About everything. About yourself, about others, about how the universe truly works. And no one knows the truth about the Universe. The whole knowledge of humanity is only an approximation. Thinking that you know how the world works is the first indication of ignorance. We don’t know what the objective reality is. We only build our own maps of reality that help us navigate this life. And this is implication #4.
- The map is not the territory. Everything you know as truth is true only for you. Ironically, the more knowledge you have the more you realize how little you know about reality. Implication #5 and the danger that is hidden within it.
- Believe in your map long enough and your map will become the territory. You see the world not the way it is but the way you are. The Universe is neutral. It is not bad or good. It will just confirm for you through your experience all the things that you believe are true for you.
But I digress.
What did we understand so far?
- Your Environment is shaped by your Behavior (Actions you take or actions you don’t take)
- To have the results you never had you need to exercise a new Behavior
- The scope of the Behaviors that you can exercise is limited by the scope of your Skills
So how do we acquire skills?
This is where things start to get interesting. 👇
Level 3. Values / Beliefs
If you are looking at the image, you can see that this level is split with a diagonal line into two parts — Values & Beliefs.
This level represents an individual’s underlying beliefs and values, which shape their perceptions and interpretations of the world.
Here are some main principles to note at this level:
1. Your Values drive your behavior.
In life, we only do things that we see as important. If it is not important for us, we will be avoiding doing it. For example, we all know that “I don’t have time” is just an excuse. You find time for everything you find important. If you are not doing it, it is just not important enough to be prioritized.
2. Your Values drive your Skill Acquisition.
You acquire skills that you think are important for building your life OR you acquire skills that satisfy your innate Curiosity. For example, if Health is your Value you will acquire the skill of doing pull-ups. If Creativity is your Value you will learn how to express your creativity through Arts & Crafts & Music. If Money is your Value you will be focusing on acquiring the skills that will help you to get rich. Your Values are the pointers of the Direction. You are being pulled by them.
3. You will be living in alignment with your Values and exercising the corresponding Behavior to acquire important Skills UNLESS you are blocked by Limiting Beliefs.
You will not be taking the Right Action even if you know what the Right Action is if you are blocked by a Limiting Belief.
For example, Job Hunting. You may know that networking is an important thing to do as you see Securing the Job as Valuable, however, you are not connecting with other people because you are blocked by limiting beliefs such as: “No one wants to talk to me”, “I have nothing to offer”, “I don’t want to be seen as a beggar”, “What if they reject me?”, “I am not good at selling myself” etc.
One more example: Personal Branding. You may think that building a reputation in your industry through thought leadership is important for you because you want to generate better opportunities or be seen as a leader, but you are blocked by your limiting beliefs. Classic Impostor Syndrome: “Who am I to speak up?”, “No one is going to listen to me”, “I am not a Subject Matter Expert”, “I don’t know where to start”, “What if people will judge and criticize me?”, “What if I say something that will create a negative backlash and ruin my career”, etc.
The Level of Beliefs is the level where a lot of coaching work is taking place.
As coaches, we uninstall or upgrade ineffective mindsets or limiting beliefs so that the Core Values could “flow” and manifest themselves freely.
If you don’t know what your Core Values are, check this article. You will find step-by-step instructions on how to complete the Values exercise.
So next.
What lies beyond the level of Values & Beliefs?
Introducing the Level of Identity.
Level 2. Identity.
This level represents an individual’s concept of self and personal identity. You can also call it Ego or your Concept of Self.
This level includes things like:
- Roles that you play (e.g. father/husband/son in the context of family, job title/role in the context of a career, and your roles within other paradigms like coach/coachee, mentor/mentee, teacher/student, manager/employee, leader/follower, etc.)
- Personal Ethos (Who am I? Who am I as a person/professional/human being? What does my journey on this planet really means to me?)
- Personal Goals (All the things that you want to accomplish in life)
- Psychology/Psyche-type
- Core Beliefs (I am the person who…)
- Meta-Programs (What’s a meta-program? I will be creating more content around meta-programs, but a quick example would be Locus of Control — philosophically do you think that things are just happening to you or you are the one who is making the things happen? The former outlook is called the External Locus of Control, and the latter is called the Internal Locus of Control.)
The Level of Identity is the level where the heavy lifting of coaching takes place. Working on core beliefs or re-engineering the identity is always hard, focused work. True transformation takes time. You can imagine how much work it takes to reprogram the mindsets that have remained unchallenged for decades.
The good news and something you always need to keep in mind is that everything you have accepted for yourself as absolute truth is true only for you. Every single thing that you believe is true about you is just a puzzle piece in your concept of self. Your Identity can be redesigned if there is an intention, self-discipline, and accountability.
You are not set in stone. Your mind is fluid, malleable, and adaptable.
You are probably thinking — it seems like you can be a high-functioning individual if you got everything sorted up to the level of identity and you will be right. Indeed, many people are.
In my coaching practice, I work with extremely EXTREMELY high-functioning and successful (from the material point of view) people.
But are they happy?
You’d be surprised to see how many people with all their material wealth lack a sense of purpose and fulfillment in their lives.
So what is missing?
Is there anything else beyond the level of Identity that you as a human should be focusing on to make sure that you develop holistically and live a happy balanced life?
There is.
Level 1. Spirituality
Not everyone reacts in the same way to the word Spirituality, especially in the Western world, but this word represents the core of my coaching practice so I will stick to it.
If it sounds too woo-woo for your mind at this point in time, you can call this level Mission or Purpose or any other words that resonate personally with you.
It doesn’t matter what you call it but this level represents an individual’s connection to a higher power or sense of purpose. It includes things like an individual’s spiritual beliefs and practices. It includes Creativity, meaning how the Creator in you manifests itself in the world. At this level, you will be defining your Ultimate Why.
This is also the level, where the most intimate, most transformational work takes place.
As I have shared before, as a coach, I work with extremely high-functioning, high-earning individuals who from a material standpoint have everything one would think they need to have. A great career. High salary. A big house. A car. A happy family. Yet somehow they still lack meaning in their lives.
To be fully fulfilled in life you should gain absolute clarity on what you are and what you are not.
You should find the answers to the questions:
“What am I doing here on this planet?
What is this all for?
What is the purpose of this journey?”
The truth is harsh but simple really.
Life has no meaning.
No one cared about you before you arrived here, and 3 generations after you are gone no one will.
The thought of it might be scary. But think of it deeply enough and it will liberate you.
The only meaning of life that you can have is the one that you generate for yourself.
There is no reason not to live playing the games that you want to play, as long as you remember that it is all just a game and one day your Mother will call you home.
There is no reason not to build things you want to build with the people you love and solve the puzzles that entertain you, bring you joy, and hopefully serve others.
There is nothing noble about shrinking and not living your life squeezing it like a lemon to the last drop, taking your absolute maximum out of it, realizing your full potential as a human, and arriving to the point of your death as a Fearless Being with zero regrets about how this life was lived.
It is only through answering our calling that we can fulfill our Life’s Mission.
It is only through service to others that we can achieve Self-Actualization.
Let’s talk about how to use this Tool
If you can hire a coach, hire a coach.
I can give you a hundred reasons why everyone needs a coach, but I will give you only one — the main one.
- The only frame of reference that you have and ever had is your own mind.
- Your mind is all you have ever known, this is all you will ever know, and this is the only place you will ever live in.
- On top of that, psychology research claims that only 5% of what we do is conscious. Everything else happens in the background — in our Subconsciousness.
- Because all your thinking is happening within your own thinking mind, it is VERY HARD to get out of your head.
- Even if you practice meditation, and learned how to quiet your ever-buzzing mind, it is still EXTREMELY HARD to challenge your own beliefs and pressure-test the aspects of your identity that you have just accepted as truth. Things that are so deeply integrated into your concept of self are impossible to detect. You don’t know that this thing is there because it has never been brought to the light of your awareness, meaning — no one was ever there for you to point at it.
- If you don’t meditate, if you don’t journal, and have very little time you spend in solitude, chances are it will be very hard for you to grasp the fact that the thinking can be stopped.
- I will take it even further. It is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to see the gaps in your logic and deficiencies in your thinking if thinking is all you do all day long.
Incessant thinking is the disease of this age.
All problems arise because people don’t know where is the 📴 button on their minds.
I can show you.
Spirituality is not woo-woo.
Spirituality is the only way to Freedom.
Now here is a little Matrix reference for you. Let this be the signal that Morpheus sends to you over the internet:
I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.
If you can see the signs in your life that you are ready to wake up…
If you know that you can let the Matrix have you no longer…
If you know that remaining the same is no longer an option…
…let me show you how to write your own code.
You can be the master of your mind, not its slave.
Everyone deserves to be free.
You deserve to be free.
- Find your Purpose.
- Design a Vision.
- Engineer your Identity
- Burn everything that is not true about you to ashes.
- Gain Clarity on your Values.
- Work on your Beliefs.
- Acquire the Skills you need to manifest your Vision.
- Build systems.
- Take systemic Action.
- Change your Environment.
- Transform your Life.
Last Words
“Ufff…things got deep very quickly. 😅”
This is pretty much the reaction of all my clients on the first call. During the call, we sometimes cover Logical Levels but I figured, I will just capture a step-by-step explanation of this tool in one article.
Feel free to use it, and share it with someone who is going through a change. Even if you can’t afford to work with a coach right now, you can benefit from using coaching tools in your life.
You can find more tools and exercises in the Writing Section on my personal website. Check them out.
Hope this helps you in your journey.
Peace 🙏
p.s. If you have a story to share of how this helped you, please give me a shout on LinkedIn. I pretty much live there :)
