The Challenge of Independence

A Road Less Traveled ...

It is a crucial requirement that each of us become an independent thinker an independent person as an aware consciousness. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of A Mystic: Innovation - October, 2009)

Those who know me, would likely agree that I’m fiercely independent.  A leader in the coaching community once labelled me a ‘contrarian’ (I would wear the badge proudly). And, some of you might be smiling or shaking your head in agreement about now.

This week though I’ve begun exploring independence from its opposite: dependence. The exploration comes forth from this musing in my journal in a couple days ago:

If the truth of lack is abundance, how can truth be applied to the budget of the local water district where I serve on the board? How can I apply this truth more powerfully to my own finances?

The vast San Luis Valley reminds me that abundance is the truth.

Warning: you won’t find the answers in this post.  I’m still in the exploration.  I have more questions than answers (and, that’s a good thing!).  What I’ve come to see (in a BFO – blinding flash of the obvious) is that independent thinking leading to innovation requires experimentation.  In our culture, we’ve erected numerous barriers … dependencies, if you will … to truly independent thinking and the action that follows. 

These dependencies create a complex web that is often ignored. Take for example being dependent on a job (or having enough clients) for money to meet the needs of self and family. Or, in the case of public agencies like the water district, being dependent on generating sufficient revenue to pay the costs to keep each tap flowing. The complexity encompasses not just the issues on the surface, but a dependency that values knowing, order, and getting things right over curiosity, experimentation, and possibly needing to make course corrections.

Dependencies are embedded deep in our culture from systems and life experience. In school, we learned that good grades come giving ‘right’ answers. We carry this forward to careers, jobs, businesses, institutions – praising what’s ‘right’, condemning what isn’t – our dependency on being accepted and approved trumping our willingness to experiment, learn, grow, change and, yes, be alone in taking our stand.

Now that I see the challenge more clearly, what new possibilities will emerge? What would an innovative approach to public finance and a budget shortfall look like from the perspective of knowing that abundance (not lack and its associated fears) is a universal truth – that there is always enough?  What conversation can open that door?  What dependencies and pre-conceived ideas must I let go of to invite and engage the conversation?  How will I tap into the courage to do just that?

Yep, more questions than answers. I’ll let you know what emerges in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, what are you dependent upon that is in the way of living the independent life you were designed to live?

Morning light and the Zigguraut never fail to offer just what I need ... calm, inspiration, beauty (and the list goes on).

Independence From the Inside Out

We have the freedom to flow as freely as this stream ...

The minute you become dependent on anyone in any way, you no longer have any power to move forward in your own pattern, in your own blueprint and on your own behalf. You come to a halt. Gregge Tiffen (Feeding Freedom: The Meaning of Independence Day July, 2007)

I believe that our founding fathers and the mothers who worked as diligently in support of independence understood independence in a way that is lost in our current culture. Today we live in a society and systems that rely on dependence and the control that dependence brings forth.  We are poorer in terms of our overall well-being and consciousness as a result.

Who among us has not felt a deep sense to make a particular decision or take a particular action, then held back from that choice?  My own list of not following the path that I knew inside was most true to me and my blueprint includes staying in jobs, keeping clients, maintaining relationships well beyond the time that they provided me the ability to express my unique self. 

From where I live now in life, I see the patterns of dependence: on money, on approval, on security, on being cared for (or so I rationalized), on what others think, even on having others depend on me.  You can probably enrich these with your own life experiences.  And, lest you think that I’ve become a saint, I still experience living independently as challenging.

Just as those who created the United States faced enormous challenges and threats in declaring independence, it takes courage to declare personal independence in today’s world. And, just as the United States has experienced many bumps along the road to living fully into our 1776 declaration, it takes courage – the strength of our convictions, if you will – to live into the largeness of the personal independence that is truly ours. That independence is the law of the Universe and we ignore it at our peril.

Courage is required to look honestly at how we live life and to recognize and be willing to name the web of dependence that we’ve created, individually and collectively.  And yet, perhaps only when we’ve done so may we be truly free.  Just as the signers of the Declaration of Independence articulated their grievances against the King, we too need to look to what we’ve allowed to impinge upon our personal, individual independence and freedom to think, make decisions, and act in the ways that are unique to each of us.

As you make choices this week, notice those that are true, authentic expressions of you. Celebrate yourself!  Notice as well those that are not and ask:  From what dependency would a declaration of my personal independence serve me?

... And, to fly joyfully through life. The choice is ours and ours alone.