A sense of oneness encourages you to optimize and expand your contribution as an individual. It isn’t enough to just get by in life. If you perform well below your capacity, you’re denying responsibility for your role in the larger body. You’re withholding value both from yourself and others.
When I (Steve Pavlina) decided to retire from the field of computer-game development, I’d been devoting much of my spare time to helping independent game developers, especially those who were trying to finish and release their first game. I provide free how-to articles, hosted a popular online discussion forum, and shared lots of free advice. However, once I committed to a career change, I stopped providing that level of help to game developers and transitioned to my new career as gracefully as possible. While some people were upset by this move, I considered it a fair decision because I believed I could make a more positive contribution to the greater good through the field of personal development. I didn’t regret the choice at all.
Oneness can make contribution even more rewarding. Without a sense of oneness, rewards are considered only at the individual level: What’s in it for me? What do I get out of this? Why should I make the effort? When oneness is present, this conflict dissolves because rewards are considered at a much higher level. You partake in the success of others, and another person’s achievement is valued just as much as your own.
Have you ever felt genuinely happy for someone else’s success? I often feel this way when reading feedback from my website visitors about their personal development breakthroughs. I celebrate their successes as if they’re my own. When one of us gains, we all gain.
Oneness doesn’t conflict with individuality. The cells in a body are unique individuals, each with different characteristics. If every cell were identical, the larger body wouldn’t exist. The individual health of each unit is valued, but at the cellular level there’s recognition of contributing to a greater whole rather than working merely for one’s own survival and happiness. If the cells don’t attend to the health of the body, the body will die, taking every cell with it. Similarly, for the body to survive, the cells must be healthy as well. The body cares for the cells, and the cells care for the body.
As an individual cell, your impact is limited. If you live entirely for yourself, your life will amount to very little against the backdrop of all humanity. With few exceptions, the accomplishments of any one cell are virtually meaningless. However, by aligning yourself with the highest good of the body, your role takes on much greater significance. Now you’re an agent of a giant, a contributor to magnificence, a holographic piece of consciousness itself.
Humanity’s health is your health, and humanity’s accomplishments are your accomplishments. Whatever anyone living or dead has ever achieved is yours to cherish as your own. Your greatness is limited only by the expansion of consciousness itself. What would you like to contribute to this expansion?
* Source: Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina