Belonging without performing.
Last week I wrote about the fear of nobody choosing us and how putting our energy in to building deep roots can mean we’re okay whatever happens. That's stayed with me and it's led me back to something I first explored in my coach training and later found again in eco-psychologist Bill Plotkin's work - the idea of ‘the loyal soldier’.
Our story today goes back to WWII. Japanese soldiers were stationed on remote Pacific islands and told never to surrender.
The best-known is Hiroo Onoda, who kept fighting alone in the Philippine jungle for almost 30 years after the war ended not because he was foolish but because he was loyal and nobody with the authority to tell him otherwise had reached him.
When he finally did surrender in 1974, he didn't look back with regret, he was surprisingly reflective, seeing it as an integrated part of himself.