Now that we have equipped our cruise ship with a powerful engine, arranged our captain’s cockpit, got the newest navigation maps, refined our carcass with the best materials, fine-tuned our signal system & secured our lifeboats, we stand on the bow of our mighty ship & wonder: Why in the world it does not move? Well… Up until now, we thought that our success depended completely on us: our motivation, personal brand, education, material well-being, our communication style & our health condition. We’ve done all our due diligence & still, our ship stands still.
The thing is that such a huge vessel can be moved forward only by fast-spinning propellers. Exactly. In other words, it needs to be propelled forward. And as much as we would like to do it on our own like Baron Münchhausen, who once grabbed himself by his hair & pulled himself out of a swamp, we cannot do it. We need our Community! Yes, yes, yes. Our church, our family, our friends. They lift us up & propel us forward toward success. Without them, we are stuck. We may look shiny & all, but we are stuck. We need other people, and other people need us.
In healthy communities, people propel each other. If we notice that other people only feed on us, use us as a trampoline, and do not give back to us, we might consider ourselves for a moment as “angels ministering spirits sent to serve” others. Well, it does sound noble, but not true. We are not angels; we are people, made of flesh & blood, who have needs to be met by other people as much as everybody else. And the sooner we realize it, the better. The same is with us, only trying to get something for ourselves out of others – doesn’t work. We must stop and start acting healthy: give & receive. Then, our propellers will work properly or “propellerly,” spinning & propelling us forward to our success while we will do the same for others.
