Reclaiming Independence Day

Independence Day is here, and today I have a question to ask my fellow LeadLearners. Is our culture promoting people to be Independent or in Dependence?  It's a play on words obviously, but this is no laughing matter.

I'm not talking about economics. What I am referring to a basic dependence on others to sustain our own sense of confidence and well-being.  We all enter this world dependent creatures and should be conditioned to one day fly on our own and be independent. 

The problem is that our culture conditions us to believe that we are special and that it is someone else's job to make us happy. Whether it be from a relationship, material possessions, or a position in our career, we are conditioned to expect that it is someone else's job to create the conditions to make us happy. 

This facade of dependent expectations is fatally flawed because no one can read our minds and serve us to our own level of satisfaction. No matter how hard they try, as long as we are dependent on someone else to make our lives better, they can never satisfy us. Genetically we were brought in as dependent infants expected to mature into independent adults. In other words no one can make our lives better than we can. 

Therefore, we must rise up on this Independence Day and make a stand against the glamorized and misguided life of dependence. No product, person or position in life can make us better than who we are already. We must stop searching for a better life.  The search for joy outside ourselves takes us further away from a free and independent life. To move towards independence, we must depend from within and above to gain true freedom from the tyranny of short-term, worldly happiness. 

Liberty is freedom from control. I challenge you to free yourself from the chains of dependence. No longer look to someone to provide you the benefits of life that you can provide for yourself. The next iPhone will not make you happier. The next U is the only thing that will make you happier. 

"Give me liberty or give me death" were the inspiring words of Patrick Henry. I hope this Independence Day you will join me in changing our world from one that is in dependence to one that is independent, and that together we can change the world by starting with ourselves.

Happy Independence Day!