We have all been brought up to believe that success is the result of competitive independence. Common catch cries being: us against them – dog eat dog – screw them before they screw you! The corridors of power are littered with the corpses of executives who have outlived their “use by dates”.
We have learned through our educationalists and other role models that the road to success is through competitive win/loose strategies. This model of course suits our egos perfectly. When we achieve what we have set out to do we reinforce the idea that somehow we are special and better than eveyone else. When we fail to achieve our goals we simply blame other people and external events. Whichever way it goes the ego wins but do we?
How’s this working for you?
Are you suffering from burn out due to busyness and working long hours? Are your significant relationships in danger of failing? Do you feel that your life has no purpose? Do you have little or no time for yourself to do the things you love? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you are most probably suffering from dysfunctional independence.
Yet not only do our personal lives suffer as a consequence of this but when we are limited in our resources and the ability to leverage others skills, knowledge and experience the results are also predictably and consistently poor. We all have unique personalities and skills to match however we cannot be experts in everything. When we are fiercely singleminded in our independence we can only know what we know and see what we can see. On the other hand when we are part of a team leveraging others peoples’ knowledge, skill and experience we avail ourselves of an unlimited wellspring of creative potential.
The solution to this problem are healthy doses of interdependence. This is the new business model for the 21st century and beyond. I do not of course suggest that we should do away with competition. What is required however is a balance between taking sensible and well thought out independent action and delegating tasks that take up our valuable time which could be completed by others with different but complimentary skill sets.
In the final analysis dysfunctional independence keeps us distracted and separate from our higher selves and as a consequence we struggle through our lives fearfully relying on ourselves for all the answers when within each of us is an infinite wellspring of inspiration and creative potential that can help us. We need to have a little faith in each other and the great beyond!