Self-Reliance & Happiness
Our lives are an endless chain reaction of cascading events and experiences.
Today, COVID-19 is an example of such. How we respond determines whether the chain imprisons our thoughts, beliefs, and actions or serves as a truss leading to building our confidence, resilience, and persistence, especially in times of ambiguity and crisis. In Primary Greatness, Stephen Covey reminds us that we each have four endowments: Self-Awareness (where we separate stimulus from response), Conscience (our internal guidance system), Independent Will (our power to choose), and Creative Imagination (our ability to create beyond current circumstances). It is within these four endowments that we establish our self-reliance, the governance of our own lives and happiness.
Often, self-reliance is employed synonymously with independence, autonomy, isolation, and the capacity to protect oneself. For leaders, however, self-reliance rings as an axiom for understanding one’s limiting beliefs and embracing one’s edification of vulnerability, trust, wisdom, integrity, self-worth, and unique value. It is taking responsibility for our relationships, our work, how we engage with the world, and how we hold ourselves accountable. It feels as if we are sometimes ashamed of what we will discover if we removed the yoke from the outside world to fulfill us. When we remove the burden from the world to give us ‘what we deserve’ and from other people to ‘make us happy’, we afford ourselves access to the fundamental truth that the pursuit of happiness is not an external exercise - it is the deliberate practice of visiting and revisiting with ourselves, seeking to define ourselves for ourselves. The neglected truth about individuality is the price that comes with freedom and will - that it also requires accepting ownership of happiness.
So, leader...are you prepared to embrace self-reliance and happiness as levers that are within your control? Are you willing to see the four endowments and individuality as pathways to stronger and more powerful connections with others? Are you willing to discover your whole self, so that you may be a lighthouse and trusted resource during times of uncertainty and instability? Self-reliance and happiness are eagerly awaiting you as you continue to design your life!
Quote for Growth
““To be your own person is hard business. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”
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