One of the most important lessons I have learned on my journey to building an ethical business is that independence is toxic.
Now you might be thinking “What? Independence… toxic?”
Yes..You read that right.
In the United States, and in many other so-called “Developed” nations we see independence celebrated with unhinged enthusiasm.
But there’s a problem with over centering independence…
It makes us feel separate from the people in our community.
It makes us feel disconnected from the Earth.
And it feeds this idea that we don’t have a responsibility to the collective.
I was in a session with one of my AMAZING clients Kathryn yesterday, and we were working on some language for her new project Prospective Justice (click here to check it out and to receive information about how you can support her + her work).
We were talking about how the major issue in the business world is that businesses and the individuals who run them have lost their connection to the collective.
And then she dropped a BIG wisdom bomb.
She said, “We’ve gotten stuck on focusing on the individual over everything else, at the expense of everything else.”
In that moment, something clicked. For both of us.
We realized that one of the most essential parts of both of our work is helping business owners shift from “Me, me, me!” to the collective “we.”
Because when we recognize how our lives + work are interconnected, we generate more power for our collective to move in the direction of liberation.
When we tune in with the needs of the collective, our community rallies to support us.
When we wake up to the lies that we have been told about independence, we can see the truth…
We are INTER-dependent.
This is an essential part of ethical community organizing, this is the foundation of Indigenous ways of relating, and it is the key to eliminating the self-serving systems that wreak havoc on our planet and the people who live here.
Our actions impact one another. Our actions impact the planet.
None of us exists as an island. Our separateness is an illusion.
And that means that every single one of us has the ability to create collective change, if we focus our attention on the collective “we.”
Here’s my call to action for you. Think about how you can be a part of the movement for interdependence.
Ask yourself…
What needs to change in my personal life, in my community engagement, and in my business so the focus shifts from “me” to “we”?
The work of creating massive, global change is not meant to be done alone, we ARE interdependent afterall.
If you want to have a dialogue about your answers to the question above, feel free email me at hello@laurenelizabethcoaching.com with your thoughts and feelings on this topic.
Love + Liberation
Lauren Elizabeth
1 thought on ““Me, me, me!” to “We” [Because… Inter-dependence]”
This weekend, I experienced “Us vs. You.” The energy out there did not feel like “We” for me, at all. Any sense of belonging I thought I had felt like it evaporated into thin air. As a woman I felt like I am not enough of a Woman among women.
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