There is a movie out at the moment called “Air”, it’s the story of Nike. I watched it and thought it was pretty good. Prior to that though, I read the book “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. Though I don’t recall too many details from the book, I remember him describing how he put so much effort into Nike, because he was in fact, through his work, wanting to “connect” and was searching for “connection”. All that effort to connect, sounds farfetched, concocted and fanciful, but perhaps in it lays something in common.
In last month’s article, I concluded that the goal of personal development should have the ambition of ultimately forgetting about oneself and being selfless. It sounded a bit counterintuitive, even rude, no doubt, but here, I’ll explain a bit further.
There are stages to considering your relationship to life, and people are basically at different stages.
Stage 1. Life (in general) sucks.
Stage 2. My life (specifically) sucks.
Stage 3. I’m great (as an individual), and you’re not.
Stage 4. We’re great (compared to a real or perceived competitor), and they’re not.
Stage 5. Higher purpose (collective); we’re all great. Let’s help each other reach our full potential.
Credit must go to another book I’ve recently read called Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan who considers 5 levels of leadership. The above stages are adapted from his work.
There’s so much to say for the universal theme of finding satisfaction in moving from individual thinking to collective wisdom and shared experience; that movement from “I” to “we” at a deep level.
At a personal and health level, we all strive for connection and belonging. These things enrich our lives immensely. This being said, a person must equally adopt a mindset that allows them to feel connection and belonging, they need to have that epiphany that opens the door.
Returning to last month’s article, “Just a thought or two”, my second thought was that “personal development needs to ultimately be outward focused and selfless”. We can see the connection here. In business and in life, a perspective that never breaks free from the self and never crosses the chasm to consider things in the collective, ironically limits personal growth and development, and ironically, can stop a person or business from reaching their fullest potential.
As a species, humanity has progressed because of our ability to successfully interact as large groups, across the globe. Flexible cooperation. That’s it. It typifies us. At the level of an individual life then, it’s worthwhile keeping this in mind. Striving for and maintaining a mindset of “we” will help you gain a greater feeling of connection and belonging in your life. And indeed, that feeling of shared experience has the power to enrich every moment of every day of your life.
Dr Floyd Gomes
Founder
