July 29, 2010
The Levels in Action
What the Media Have Missed in the Tiger Woods Story
We’re going to crawl out on a limb here and guess that Tiger Woods is a very Level 2 guy. It is not the Spitzer Center’s practice to pin this label on people, but we’ll make a guess here (and it is just a guess) because his highly publicized crisis suggests it. The “Tiger Is Level 2 Hypothesis” also helps to explain a lot of things that have his admirers scratching their heads.
It’s tempting to argue that Woods’ Level 2-ness has been on display his whole life. He’s always been known as one of the world’s most intensely competitive people, and his very name betokens a fierce, unrelenting pursuit of victory. However, there’s a difference between competitiveness and a Level 2 identity. Competitive means you love to win, and you never lose because you weren’t trying hard enough. A Level 2 identity means that winning becomes your dominant purpose in life. It’s the only thing that gives life meaning and the only thing that really makes you feel happy.
If you’re ruled by Level 2, you’re likely to be unhappy no matter how much else is going well in your life. A case can be made that Tiger Woods proves this assertion. |
When Level 2 takes control, it shuts out the deeper, more enduring happiness found at Levels 3 and 4; it roils the heart with emotions that cloud a man’s judgment and truncate virtue; and it makes it hard to maintain healthy long-term relationships. It inflicts all this grief in exchange for a form of happiness that’s ephemeral.
In short, if you’re ruled by Level 2, you’re likely to be unhappy no matter how much else is going well in your life. A case can be made that Tiger Woods proves this assertion.
Why did he even want to stray?
Most people were shocked by Woods’ crisis because his transgressions seemed so … unnecessary. One can forgive the man-in-the-street for looking at Tiger and thinking, “What is your problem? You had super stardom, legions of fans, a gorgeous wife, two kids, and boatloads of money! You weren’t satisfied with everything you had? It wasn’t enough!?”
And the simple answer is, No, it wasn’t enough. If you’re stuck at Level 2 dominance, there is no such thing as enough. As Fr. Robert Spitzer writes,
“When winning becomes an end in itself and your only purpose in life, the only thing you can do if you’re already winning is win even more. You can’t plateau, because when you do, you feel empty, even though you’re supposedly full. You have to win more and more because if you stop or even pause, the emptiness follows.”
Level 2 happiness isn’t deep or enduring. “Supersizing” your victories, as Woods has surely done, doesn’t solve this problem. A large victory, like a large meal, gives way to emptiness soon enough. That emptiness has to be filled by another conquest (of one type or another), or with the intense but even more fleeting physical pleasures found at Level 1.
Why wasn’t he smart enough to know his behavior would lead to a crisis?
The limits of Level 2 explain another baffling aspect of Woods’ situation. Did he really believe a man as famous as he is could get away with a double life? Was he being deliberately reckless, or was it a massive lapse in judgment?
Probably the latter. Fr. Spitzer has observed elsewhere that ethical lapses are more of a risk when you’re Level 2 dominant.
“Level 3 people actually have an easier time being ethical than Level 2 people. This is not because they are necessarily more moral. Level 2 generates a range of negative emotions. There’s jealousy, anger, fear of failure, ego rage, contempt, and superiority. These negative emotions block people’s perceptions of ethical issues. They get in the way of people acting ethically.”
It’s seems strange that a man as successful as Woods might be churning inside with negative emotions, but Tiger watchers have seen these emotions surface with regularity on the golf course. ESPN’s Rick Reilly lamented Wood’s behavior at the 2009 British Open: “It was two days of Tiger Tantrums – slamming his club, throwing his club and cursing his club. In front of a worldwide audience. … This isn't new. Woods has been this way for years.” You can excuse his behavior or criticize it, but you can’t deny it’s there. It lends credence to the case that Woods’ emotions rule him more than he rules his emotions.
Why would he put his family life at risk?
There are few things in life that demand more sustained commitment than marriage and family, and Level 2 people find this commitment more challenging for two reasons. First, since Level 2 dominance is self-focused, their view of freedom tends to be “freedom from,” not “freedom for.” Freedom is seen as liberation from outside demands, constraints, and commitments, as opposed to the liberty to decide which commitments you undertake willingly for others. When commitment feels like a shackling of the self and not a gift, it’s easier to undertake and rationalize behavior that flouts commitments.
Self-focus makes it harder to cultivate virtues aimed at the benefit of others, particularly Justice, which always seeks to give other people their due, starting with your own family. Woods’ crisis would seem to suggest he also has issues with Prudence and Temperance (self-control).
The purpose of these observations is not to castigate Woods or give him advice (it’s beyond the scope of our influence to do either). We sincerely hope this crisis will inspire him to pursue his happiness in a way that is deeper, more pervasive, and more enduring.
But for all those people pondering what to make of his recent crisis, there’s a lesson to be grasped that is hard to spot in all the voluminous media coverage.
We all want the same thing in life – we all want happiness, Woods included. And if Tiger can’t find it at Level 2, what are the odds that you can?
– John Keenan, Editor
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Last changed: Dec 17 2009 at 11:42 AM