Sharing Resources to Help You Grow Personally, Professionally & Financially

Sometimes it helps to get a little dose of encouragement—along with a good cup of coffee!—to start the day. Today we discuss self-reliance

Hopefully the message below will help you get off to a good start for the week.  Please feel free to forward the newsletter on to others that you think would benefit from the content.

Self-Reliance

I admit it. I hate to ask for help.

And at the risk of being politically incorrect, I think that I share this character trait with the vast majority of my gender. Why is that? I think it’s because we have all bought in—erroneously—to the myth of self-reliance.

Don’t get me wrong, we each are responsible for our own actions. And we can’t expect things to just be given to us—we MUST work hard for all that we get. However, in my opinion, to hold the position that the ONLY reason you got where you are/have what you have is due to you and you alone is ludicrous.

Each of us benefits MASSIVELY from others. While we don’t always see the cause-and-effect correlation directly, it’s obvious when we step back and consider the environment in which we are working. Anyone that lives in the US has privileges that those living in other parts of the world do not. Most all businesses benefit from the infrastructure and stability that is present in the markets they serve. The list is endless.

While it’s important to recognize how blessed each of us is and to consider this prior to becoming too self-absorbed with the concept of self-reliance, I think there is an even bigger topic related to the concept of self-reliance—the concept of community and relationships.

I would argue that we are designed to be in community and in relationship with others. Buying full-scale into the myth of self-reliance flies in the face of community and relationships. Without these two, life is just not very pleasant.

I’m not saying anything new here, as Orson Wells tapped into the same theme in his classic, Citizen Kane. Unfortunately, the allure of self-reliance is strong and many fail to understand the trap until it is too late.

That brings us to this week’s question:

• Are you relying on self-reliance too much? 

Thanks for sharing a bit of your time with me this Monday morning.  

Have a great week!

Blog post from this past week:

Monday Morning Motivation - Rest