As humans, we’re always going to be dependent on someone, somewhere, to some extent.
For example—if you have a job, you’ll be dependent on the company, to a certain extent, to write your checks and pay you automatically.
If you live within the jurisdiction of a government (as the vast majority of people do), then you’ll be dependent on that government, to a certain extent, to make sure that you are safe, that you have paved roads, that the infrastructure of the community remains intact, that foreign invaders don’t encroach upon your freedoms, etc.
With all of that being said—it’s also good for us, as humans, to develop as much independence as we can.
Even though this will never be a ‘perfect’ or ‘pure’ endeavor, it’s still important to do our best with what we have to work with.
This is important for 2 main reasons—and both will have an impact on your overall health and wellness in life:
- More independence means more options in life, to make choices and do things that are better for you
- More independence means that you’ll have the power to make choices in life that’ll lead you away from negative outcomes and toward positive ones
With that being said, let’s explore 3 different methods for how you can start developing just a little bit more independence in your life on a daily basis.
The secret word for this is diversification.
Let’s talk about how diversification can help you to become more independent—even in the context of the modern world.
1. Diversify Your Income
When you have money coming in from multiple different sources, you basically give yourself more freedom over your work/life balance.
For example—if your only income is your job, then you’re going to be totally dependent on that job until you find an alternative.
But if your income comes 60% from your job, and 40% from side hustles, a side job, or investments—well, that means that you’re a lot less ‘fully’ dependent on your job, and this gives you more freedom to walk away from it if things go wrong.
2. Diversify Your Social Connections
When you have an abundance of friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and contacts in life, you’ll avoid becoming ‘dependent’ on the few primary people in your circle for the ‘human connections’ you need to thrive and flourish.
As humans, we all need to be connected to other humans. We need a community, a friend group, and a sense of belonging.
So meeting more new people, and always being willing to bring new people into your life, means that you’ll greatly diversify your connections—which means that you won’t become ‘dependent’ on any one or two people.
3. Diversify Your Opportunities
When looking forward to the future, it’s always a good idea to have a plan for a path that’ll give you a few different options for how you want to branch out and create an even better life for yourself.
For example—if you plan to develop a high-income skill for yourself, you should be aware of a few different ways that you could leverage this skill to help make your life awesome.
If you plan to move to a new house or city, you should think to yourself:
“How will this move contribute to more options for my life, and give me more control over how I want to create my own existence?”
If a life move is going to ‘box you in’ to a certain framework, you may want to rethink your strategy.
