Independence isn’t proving you don’t need people. It’s choosing who you lean on.

Needing people is not a weakness to be trained out of; everybody leans somewhere, and the only question is whether you picked the direction. Refusing all help is not strength, just a narrower kind of dependence, often on luck. Choosing well is the actual skill. Who you rely on matters far more than how little you rely on anyone.

Name the two or three people you would call first in a hard week, and check that the list is yours rather than inherited. Do something small for one of them before you need anything.