How To Think For Yourself
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
~Bob Marley
Can’t stop smoking? Eating wayyyyy too much sugar? Getting married before you’re ready? Stuck in a career you never actually wanted to be in? Wondering how the hell you got here in the first place? Asking yourself why you consistently feel lethargic, unmotivated, irritable and emotionally drained? There is HOPE!
What if I told you that most of your life decisions and “addictions” that brought you here aren’t actually your fault?
That’s right. Those smokes that you can’t seem to put down are a very potent combo platter of brilliant marketing mixed with a healthy dose of societal brainwashing. Let me explain...
Your parents began telling you as a kid that you must land a “stable” job with all the perks and safety nets to fall back on in turn for what turned out to be a jail-like existence. You were told to marry someone with the same background regardless of knowing who they TRULY were as a person from their self-awareness to their values to their spirit behind the day to day surface facade. You were told that you must go to college to get so and so degree if you ever want to be someone or accomplish something or reach impressive goals. You were instructed to always “clean your plate” and eat beyond your body’s comfortable capacity. And, you dove in blindly to these “truths” without taking radical inventory of what you might actually experience later having not understood what YOU actually wanted in your own soul. These blind jumps into what we are “supposed to” do are all forms of ongoing, powerful conditioning.
All of these “follow the crowd” ideas are outrageously false beliefs and scare tactics simply placed upon us to keep us in line.
So, can you envision a world filled with independent thinkers that have chosen to take a different road altogether that’s less known or traveled on yet feels so much better? That world would look vastly different than the one we’re living in.
The new road is certainly NOT what most parents and educators wanted for their kids as it’s too frightening and unstable for them. They want to do things exactly how their parents did it, and grandparents, and great grandparents. But you know what happens when you don’t think for yourself and you just toe the line? It leads to a life of quiet depression and desperation. It leads to stress and burn out. It leads to merely existing and not thriving.
By the time you hit your 20’s, you believed that you were thinking for yourself, but you were not. The broken system we are tied to constantly think FOR us. That’s right. It is a well-oiled machine that keeps chugging along to keep everyone in place. Parents, teachers, advertising and society as a whole have been repeating themselves on loop inside your mind from the day you came into this world because it’s all they’ve known.
When you don’t tap into what you truly desire or how you feel, you can easily end up living someone else’s idea of how life should roll out. This week Megan Markel and Prince Harry made an announcement that they would be going out on their own, and in my opinion, that was the ultimate power move. They are setting themselves free to live independently. Imagine making money on your own terms and creating your own family on your own timeline with whomever you want and clearly seeing that the destructive behaviors you’ve adopted were never random? These conditions were placed into your mind all your life, overpowering your individual mind.
So, how do we unravel ourselves and separate from this debacle?
Well, the first step is to recognize your obvious dissatisfaction with the choices you’ve made. Step two is to get crystal clear on who is making your life decisions. Step three is to start undoing those false beliefs you’ve been living and (hardly) breathing with. Step four is to understand what it is you want for your life. When you place all the pieces of the puzzle in order, knowing you’ve merely been influenced by outside forces, you will begin to see that many of your choices have not been your own.
This can be a real swift kick in the pants when this notion finally dawns on you. It’s so hard to believe that everything you thought you knew was actually wrong, or at least someone else’s idea for how you should live your life. Once you realize this, it’s time to finally “unfuck” yourself from these outside forces that have been running the show. You will make people uncomfortable with your new and improved options on how you want to live, but you know what, that isn’t your problem. Your only problem is that you didn’t see the light sooner.
When you start going your own way and experience real transformation in your life, you’ll be setting yourself free to never look at your decision-making process the same way again. Think for yourself. Understand that there are outside forces trying to keep you in a box. Shatter that old reality that no longer works for you. And as I always like to say, walk quietly and carry a big stick. It’s the true path to personal freedom.
