The Opposite of Steward Is Victim
In his book, The Search for Power, Harvard Professor David C. McClelland contends that there are four stages in the development of the individual to maturity:
Stage 1: Power is perceived as coming from others, but is directed toward oneself.
Stage 2: Power is perceived as residing within oneself, and is used for the needs of the self.
Stage 3: Power is perceived as residing within oneself, but is used for the sake of others.
Stage 4: Power is perceived as residing outside, coming through the self, but used for the sake of others.
This last stage is what religion is all about. And faith. And theology. And Jesus.
It is the task of career development to help remove the last vestiges of Stage 1 (where we feel like “victims”) from our lives, by teaching that even in the world of work, power resides within us, and can be used for the sake of others. So as long as men and women do not know or believe this, theology may well beckon them in vain, to Stage 4. We must first learn that we are not victims, before we learn that we are stewards.
Maturity and Change
To exist is to change; to change is to mature; to mature is to create oneself endlessly. –Henri Bergson
Your Hidden Potential
An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle’s egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the changeling eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what the prairie chickens did. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that’s how prairie chickens were supposed to fly. Years passed. And the changeling eagle grew very old. One day, he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. “What a beautiful bird!” said the changeling eagle to his neighbor. “What is it?” “That’s an eagle—the chief of the birds,” the neighbor clucked. “But don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him.” So the changeling eagle never gave it another thought. And it died thinking it was a prairie chicken. –Ted Engstrom
Growing Up for Sure
Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it, and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even. –Ann Landers
Childish Fear
When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things—including the fear of childishness and the desire to be grown up. –C.S. Lewis