Think for Yourself 

"From now until the end of time, no-one else will ever see life with my eyes, and I mean to make the most of my chance" - Anon

Is your mind your own? 

For most people, the prospect of thinking independently of the beliefs and values that they have grown up with is frightening. It means stepping outside of the cultural comfort zone that we all inevitably experience as children, a risky venture that requires strength of purpose and a pioneering spirit that most do not possess.

It is much easier to remain secure within the confines of familiarity - but is that truly secure? How do you know whether the thinking you are familiar with is correct, practical and useful? Will the way you think today enable or handicap you? Is it sufficient to guarantee success?

It's about perspective. If you still think the way your parents, teachers, bosses and other authority figures do, at what point do you begin to express your own perspective of life? How about your peers? Do your friends and associates think for themselves, or are they merely social clones, carbon copies of everyone else?

If you attempt to fulfill the expectations of others  for who you are and what you do with your life, you may be disappointed with the outcome, and your recognition of what has occurred may occur too late for you to make any changes. It's your life, after all. Once we leave the safety and security of our parent's home, we spend much of our time apart from the influences of our youth - parents, teachers, religious leaders - and we meet a whole lot of new influencers: bosses, peers, social icons, and the pressure to conform merely comes from a different direction.

Once again, there is this inherent need to belong, to become part of the herd, rather than 'stick out', to be a non-conformist, and the path of least resistance beckons like a willing lover. It's too easy to fall into the social rut, to wear the clothes, use the words, be seen at the right places, and for many, their sense of personal identity is threatened because the consequences are too difficult to bear. But the rewards are far greater, because once you have a clear understanding of who you are, it becomes easier as the days go by to differentiate yourself from the masses, whose main desire is to follow. 

People who think for themselves become leaders because their strength of purpose is self-evident, not dependent on reinforcement from an external source, but fuelled from within.

True personal freedom is gained when your mind is free from addiction to a mindset. It is experienced through a continual reinvention of self, a revisiting of one's fundamental beliefs and values and a constant modification of your reality model. 

D (just call me D)

justd@justd.ws

© Uncommon Sense Communication - Enabling Independent Thought