[healthymind]

I also found the polarization article interesting and helpful on many levels. The concepts of darkworker and lightworker were not amoung those levels. Both those terms seem laden with judgements and restriction to me and neither accurately describes the way I work and feel about me. Just having them as opposite extremes of each other doesn't sit with me at all.

As far as polarisation goes I see it this way....

It's the point at which the life most people are living is so unsatisfying to you that you finally and irrevocably reach for the alternative, a life of freedom, and make the commitment to having it no matter what. This commitment is so strong and deep that you will never again go back to the old ways, not even for temporary support. It aligns with Steve's concept of commitment to mastery.

So someone who's polarized is someone who's fully committed to the path of mastery. That's as far as it goes for me. I do believe that everyone will always act from a mix of self-interest and group interest. But the polarised will do so with such intensity that their results will be exponentially greater than those who are not as finely focused.

My personal perspective is very much in the self-interest camp. But do I do everything out of self-interest alone? Absolutely not. Does doing something out of group interest make me feel happy and powerful? Absolutely. Am I fear motivated? I don't think so since my dominant emotion is that of feeling free and happy. You can't feel fearful and free at the same time.

And as Steve has already pointed out you can't effectively serve the group interests until you have satisifed your self-interests. You can't give what you haven't got.