I sent an email newsletter last week and it had a big mistake in it. The second paragraph makes no sense. It says: “Have you ever considered that what we do that with our spaces, we can do that with our energy fields?”
I knew what I meant.
I usually have a second set of eyes proofread for me, but this time I was late getting it sent and was impatient. I read it several times, and read it out loud. Reading my writing aloud is a good way to make sure it makes sense. But this time it didn’t work.
The problem was that I knew what I meant to say, so I didn’t notice what I actually typed. Knid of lkie you can udnresantd waht tihs syas.
I should have used my proofreader.
Which brings me to the point: We should always use our team!
Humans are social creatures. When we tell ourselves, very stubbornly, “I can do it all by myself” we are likely mistaken. The stubbornness itself is probably a sign that we are mistaken.
Of course there are lots of things we are supposed to do alone, but in the bigger scale, “no man is an island unto himself”. We humans thrive in relationships. We are happy in community. We gravitate to groups, try to find our tribe, we work out our issues in relationship with others.
When my little sister was in a high chair and just learning to talk, she wanted to do everything all by herself. One night we were having stir-fry with soy sauce, she was at that age of budding independence and wanted to pour it “all by herself”. The over-sauced food made her shudder.
This is what happens to us even as adults when we stubbornly, and I dare say immaturely, decide that we can do “it” ―anything, everything―all by ourselves. We shudder as we learn the hard lessons of ego, and come to realize the beautiful reality of interdependence.
I see many brave and strong clients who mistakenly believe that asking for help in time of crisis is a sign of weakness. I have done this too, but I try to remember what I remind my clients.
Getting help is not a sign of weakness: It is a sign of humanity. Sometimes we find that the best thing we can do is to ask for help, to let others in. When we deny ourselves the help, and deny others the opportunity to be of service, we throw things out of balance.
Sometimes we give, and sometimes we take. Sometimes we lead, and sometimes we follow. But we never travel alone. And when we forget that, we have forgotten the very thing that makes us human.