By adding this track to your project track, your development becomes ‘identity based’, based on who you are. Projects may seem meaningful because they are goal-directed, but not all results are meaningful. Meaningfulness comes from the benefit the result has for yourself, for who you are. If you use meaningfulness in deciding whether to start a project or not, you change the reason for doing projects. They will not be about running after results any longer, but about a real feeling of going in the right direction.
Once you accept the fact that you have an identity, you truly start to respect some- thing that is bigger than your little ego can grasp. The complete picture of your identity, which will only reveal itself by the end of your life course, is too much for you (or anyone) to understand.
4. The greater whole: giving meaning
We think about objects in terms of their individual parts rather than in terms of the relationships these objects have. Almost everything we do in terms of develop ment is based on separation. Children are fed knowledge in schools, as if we could just ‘insert something’ without looking at their social environments. We separate projects from ourselves, creating results only to wonder why we wanted to achieve them in the first place. We regard ourselves as individuals, as if we were capable of defining ourselves without including the world around us.
I stress the importance of always looking at this track as a part of lasting development. Just adding this track to your development will already change way you develop in a positive way. A surprising number of people never ask themselves the question of ‘How does the whole of which I am part develop?’ You will only develop anything at all if you also think about how such development is good for the development of the greater whole.
How is working on yourself a way of developing the whole?
For many people, development becomes more meaningful as soon as they ask themselves this question. Thinking in terms of wholes is not just more lasting; it is more meaningful at the same time. Your individual development will become more powerful if you link it to that of others in your group and to the development of the whole.
How is working on the greater whole a way of developing yourself?
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