Contribution

When your ancestors traveled in tribes, it’s hard to believe that the equivalent of the modern day couch potato would have been allowed to suck up resources without contributing to the lives of the other tribe members.

Multiply this over millennia and you have the need for contribution built-in as a survival mechanism to the modern day human. This need is easy to identify in toddlers when you ask them to help with something and they enthusiastically jump in with two feet. You’ll also see it when you introduce your date to your parents for the first time and they offer to clear the dinner table, do the dishes, and take out the trash (a strategy for acceptance that often expires after acceptance is gained).

Contribution is safety.

On the hierarchy of personal development, contribution is as fundamental as shelter because before we hunkered down into static homes on one plot of land, acceptance by the tribe was our shelter. And contribution ensured our acceptance.

So, for your own good, don’t just sit there. Contribute something.