Access a PDF illustration of the 8 Forms of Capital here. Feel free to make a copy and fill it out.

Take a some time to reflect on some of the ideas in the Life Inventory and Eight Forms of Capital lectures.

Click here to access the master copy of the reflections worksheet.

Instructions: The above link will bring you to a Google Doc which is the master copy of the worksheet. Once in Google Docs, please click on ‘File’ and then ‘Make a copy’. Once you have your own own editable copy of this worksheet, you'll be able to edit it.

Our society is really good at focusing on money. We are trained to be hyper-aware of financial transactions and to judge whether something is a good deal based on its monetary worth. But the first Seed Idea here is that there is more than one type of capital.

Although there are several versions of this out there-- whether its the now-common concept of opportunity cost, or 20th century works like those of Austrian economist F.A. Hayek-- my favorite framework for this is called the Eight Forms of Capital, developed by permaculturalists Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua.

The Eight Forms of Capital are:

Financial Capital

Material Capital

Social Capital

Living Capital

Experiential Capital

Intellectual Capital

Cultural Capital and

Spiritual Capital

Before I get into a detailed explanation of these, I want to talk about the second Seed Idea: that most people aren’t aware of their resource distribution. Often we're so concentrated on deficits in finances and material capital (even for people who are doing quite well), that it's easy to miss alternative areas of abundance that we have access to. It's also easy to overlook other areas of needs.

This is why one of the fundamental parts of Stage 2 in the design process is 'Knowing What You Have,' and the way we do this is by conducting a Life Inventory. While the Creative Mapping Project has resources for a very deep dive and analysis into inventorying each form of capital, often taking an initial pass of about 20 minutes –what I call a 'Quick Inventory'-- can be all someone really needs to make actionable developments in their life design.

When you know clearly what you have, it's easier to make holistic decisions that are smart for your entire capital ecosystem. You may find that you already have most or all of the raw materials that you need in order to design the life that you want.

I use a simple color coding system for the first Life Inventory pass. If one form of capital feels abundant and plentiful, it would be assigned the color green. If an area is in deficit or debt, its color is red. If there's an area that is neither an abundance nor in deficit, but simply in maintenance mode--perhaps you could call it 'having enough that I'm just getting by', that would be colored yellow.

While we're not going to do a full inventory in this course, as we go through each form of capital, think about which color you would assign to each form if you were doing your own life inventory.

Feel free to follow along in the attached PDF as I explain my interpretation of what each of these means.

Financial Capital:

Again, we're all very familiar with financial capital. It includes money, whether that's physical or digital, as well as holdings in the stock market. Each form of capital can also be in deficit, so if you are in financial debt, that would also be listed under the Financial Capital section of your inventory.

Material Capital:

Material Capital is the next most familiar to us. It includes all physical objects that we own (or need), whether that's something as small as a hammer, or something as large as a house. Material Capital includes objects, tools, land, property, and all other physical possessions. I also categorize digital property as Material Capital, for instance a large e-book library, or all of the photos stored on your hard drive.

Social Capital

Social Capital includes relationships, network connections, favors and other acts of service. If you have a huge following on social media, that counts as social capital. If you know someone in another city who will let you spend the night at their house (instead of having to book a hotel room) that is another example of social capital. If you feel like you owe a big favor to someone, and your relationship won't be comfortable until it's repaid, that might be an example of a social capital deficit.

Living Capital

While the standard application of this is more agricultural-- your flock of sheep or your apple orchard –I've come to find it most helpful to interpret Living Capital as my ability to use my body, my health and well-being, and my time. If my fingers and hands are in good enough working order to play guitar day after day for long periods of time, as a musician I have an abundance of Living Capital. By the same token, when I lost my ability to sing and speak without pain, ending my musical career, that is an example of a deficit in Living Capital—very red.

Experiential Capital and Intellectual Capital

Experiential Capital and Intellectual Capital are related to each other. I think of them as two different sections of the same resume. If intellectual capital is knowing how to conjugate a verb in Spanish, experiential capital is having spent a whole summer in Spanish immersion. If there I s a qualification I need but don't have for my work, there may be a piece of intellectual and/or experiential capital that would turn that red into a green or at least a yellow.

Cultural Capital

Cultural Capital can be complicated to understand and it has many facets. But in its simplest form I've come to think of it as having to do with your proximity to larger cultural conversations. What do I mean by this? If I am a painter and I live in a remote village in the arctic circle without internet access, even if I am generating amazing, era-defining art, it is culturally insignificant if it's not being seen and appreciated by other painters and art lovers. My lack of proximity to cities, to galleries, to other artists, mans that I'm unable to participate in the larger artistic conversation that's happening. Whereas if I live in a vibrant cultural center, and I'm able to inspire other painters, and in turn learn from and be inspired by them, that is when I'm accessing and creating cultural capital. Of course cultural capital goes beyond art-- any group of people who is having an ongoing, collective conversation is working together to build cultural capital-- this could be as specific as a group if kids playing Dungeons and Dragons, or an entire religious organization meeting together around shared values.

Spiritual Capital

Spiritual Capital means different things for different people-- if you believe in karma, that's a clear example of a sort of currency that can be in abundance or deficit, whether or not you're a religious or spiritual person, this is the category that accounts for well-being that's more than just physical; for instance mental health falls somewhere between Spiritual Capital and Living Capital.

But the easiest way I've found to understand Spiritual Capital is in light of the core values represented on your Values Constellation Map. If my life in general is one where each of my core values is being regularly and sustainable fulfilled, then my Spiritual Capital is green. If I have a job that is systematically obstructing my ability to be fulfilled in some of my core values, that's an example of red Spiritual Capital (and probably why we use the term 'soul-sucking' about various jobs and relationships).

In this way, your level of Spiritual Capital is one of the most important indicators of success for the holistic health of your life or career ecosystem. In a way, we spend our life trading various forms of capital for other forms of capital, and in my opinion the most successful trades are the ones that result in Core Values Fulfillment. That's what money's for, that's what material possessions are for, that's what love and social relationships are for... feeling and being fulfilled at the deepest level.

While the Life Inventory alone can give lots of clarity on what areas need to be prioritized, it can become life changing when used in the context of Trade Mapping which is what we'll be covering in the next section.