Welcome back to Lessons from the Ride.

We love celebrating strength — the kind that stands alone, handles everything, and never needs help. But watching a pride of lions on safari taught me that real strength might work exactly the opposite way.

When you see a lion in the wild, it's impossible not to think about strength.

Powerful. Confident. Fearless.

But after spending time watching several prides on safari, something else fascinated me.

How much their strength depended on one another.

One afternoon, we came across a lion and lioness curled up together. One was grooming the other, who seemed perfectly content to receive the attention.

Then came this moment. A cub playing with, and loving on, a lioness.

Here were these extraordinarily powerful animals being incredibly tender with one another.

But the more we watched the lions, the more I realized their connection went far beyond affection.

Everyone had a role.

The adult males went out alone at night to patrol and defend the territory — and during the day, they were often the ones who stayed behind with the cubs. The females were responsible for hunting. And when they did, to succeed they needed to work together: stalking, separating, and attacking together, communicating without a sound, even when they were far apart in the brush.

The young lions learned by moving alongside the adults and one another.

I was even surprised to learn that the two adult brothers were sharing the same pride and territory, allowing them to occupy an even larger territory than if they were on their own.

No one lion did everything.

They took turns.

We have some funny ideas about strength.

We celebrate independence. We admire the person who can handle anything. We describe successful people as “self-made.”

But watching those lions made me wonder whether we've gotten part of strength exactly backwards.

Being strong doesn't mean doing everything yourself.

It means understanding when it's your turn to lead.

When it's your turn to protect.

When it's your turn to provide.

When it's your turn to teach.

When it's your turn to care for someone else.

And, perhaps hardest of all, when it's your turn to let someone else do those things for you.

The strongest relationships aren't built because one person always has it together.

They're built because we take turns.

Most of us don't belong to just one pride.

We have our families. Our friendships. Our workplaces and teams. Our communities.

And our role isn't necessarily the same in each of them — or even the same from one season to the next.

Maybe you've been the one carrying a little more of the load at home.

Maybe someone on your team needs you to stop solving and start teaching.

Maybe a friend who is usually the strong one needs someone else to check in first.

Or maybe you've been doing all the carrying — and it's time to let someone take a turn for you.

So here's this week's challenge:

Think about the different prides you're part of. What role does each of them need you to play right now? Then choose just one.

What's one thing you can do this week to better fulfill that role?

Because strength isn't about always being the one out front. Sometimes it's defending the territory. Sometimes it's bringing home dinner. Sometimes it's watching the kids. And sometimes it's simply lying beside someone at the end of a long day.

We all have a role to play.

We just don't have to play every role at once.