The Four Roles We Play in our Lives: Personal, Communal, Spiritual and Professional
Personal Role
We all have a sense of self and ownership. Our nation was built on individual liberty and personal property. Our families, our loved ones and our friends are OURS! We have needs, requirements and essentials. These are the things we are passionate about, we get excited for, and anxious about. These are the things that we would fight for if push came to shove. So how can we all get our own stuff and not fight over it? And what things should we strive for and not let go of once we have it? And what do we say about it? The Personal role is the starting place.
Communal Role
We are all part of a collective, a community, a group of people that are close to one another, in proximity, either geographically or based on interest. The others in our community may be strangers to us, but we are stuck with them, because they are nearby. Our Communal role is a powerful one, and an opportunity to work together towards our common interests and the greater good. Here is where we can be generous, selfless, patient and tolerant towards others. Community works when people create chances for everyone to succeed, and when we play fairly and compete by the rules. But who gets to set those rules, and who gets to enforce them? How can we accomplish all of those big things in community that need doing that no one has gotten around to? The Communal role is where we come together.
Spiritual Role
So much is unknown and unseen and bigger than any of us. In the Spiritual role, people grapple with the greatest questions of existence, life, death and beyond. Truth can be based on facts and documentation, but people also create or chase after their own truth when it is impossible to tease apart the facts based on a lack of clear evidence. We believe so many different things. How can we reconcile our different beliefs, our own understandings of truth? Must we tear each other down or tear each other apart? Instead, we can seek to understand what others understand, and learn to respect even when we don’t agree. How is that even possible? Love. Love may be the greatest force in the heavens and the Earth, a pool of energy that has no bounds. How can we tap into it? The Spiritual role is where we heal.
Professional Role
That’s all fine and good, but can we just get some work done? Our Professional role is practical, and outcome oriented, where we build stuff and get paid. Everyone can be productive. Everyone can be a producer instead of merely a consumer. In the production of goods and provision of services it’s all about efficiency, cost effectiveness, supply and demand. Finding new and better ways to tackle old problems and new ones. Building skills and experience and getting a good salary or sales revenue for your troubles. But what kinds of business helps the community instead of distracting it or breaking it down? How does our community’s economy compete with and connect to other communities and the global economy? How vulnerable are we to shocks or surprises or disruptions? The Professional role is where we get things done.