As human beings, we born into this world 100% dependent on other people. As newborns, we wouldn’t survive without love and care of our caregivers. That changes though, when we grow up. Or at least we would like to think so.
But we never survive completely alone. We need other people to thrive. Even if you would live far away from other people, you’d still be using tools and supply made or invented by others. We’re not supposed to do everything by ourselves.
Yet, this need for other people is totally different from the early days of our lives, when we were dependent upon it. Now that we’ve experienced independence and emotional maturity and know how capable we actually are, we appreciate the being and doing of those around us in new ways, too. Instead of going only after the personal gain, we’re looking for the common, greater good.
When we’re dependent, we look to control and alter the outward manifestations of our, or someone else’s, behaviors, attitudes and actions. When we’re interdependent we aim to adapt our inner core – who we are and what our motives are.
For example, if you’re watching a movie that you don’t like so much, you don’t try to go change what happens on the screen by altering the screen itself, do you? Rather, you change a movie and watch something else. What happens on the screen is the outward manifestation, the movie that is playing, is the core.
Growing from dependency into independency and furthermore to interdependency, where we healthily rely on each other and work towards common, greater good, is how not only individuals but also firms and organizations, as well as nations, come out of darkness and reach into the light to thrive.
Much love,
Paula
xx