Think of the last time you thought up something exceptionally brilliant, something incredibly out of the box, that it amazed you and even impressed your sceptical colleagues.
No. Really, take some seconds. Think.
The outcome of that thought, whatever it is, reaches further into the relevance and vivacity of your individuality than you think.
How? Glad you asked.
How far a man goes in achieving his goals depends almost entirely on how much he invests in himself. You most assuredly must have heard the clichéd saying; “You are your thoughts.” But we never really dig deep into that reasoning to ask questions like: What makes up my thoughts? How do they come to be and most importantly what have they got to do with me?
Thought as defined by the Mirrian Webster dictionary, is an idea, plan, opinion, etc. that is formed in your mind; the act or process of thinking. It goes on further to comprehensively define thought as the intellectual product or the organized views and principles of a period, place, group or individual.
Now, the origins of thought is a far more complex subject as there are many ramifications discovered by science to be responsible but in plain simple English, thoughts are mostly formed through the influences to which the human mind is exposed. The mind literally projects into thoughts what it has been fed either consciously or subconsciously; ranging from what we see, what we read and what we hear and those thoughts in turn become personal convictions, an inherent part of a person, they form a series of belief through information received, this which ultimately moulds character, an individuality. Something I call, the personification of thoughts. Hence, what you think, you become.
Since, thoughts are majorly founded and formed by the myriad of influences around us, we may feel it is quite the up-hill task, an almost impossible feat, therefore to sort out what impacts our thoughts consciously and subconsciously, especially when the environment responsible for this way of thinking seems to suit us just fine. And that’s where reasoning comes in.
If you were unable to recall the last time you were struck by a moment of genius, it does not mean something is wrong with you. Not at all. It just says that you have allowed your mind to become flaccid, to be dominated and overrun by the impositions of your society, that you have not attempted to go past the limits of convention. You should know that continuing in that vein is a perfect recipe for mediocrity. Those who aim to get ahead do not conform to the dictates of the crowd, they are not ruled by the lifestyle norms that the majority have adopted. They make their own rules to stand apart and be exceptional, choosing the influences that is best-tailored for their ambitions.
Here is how we falter to remain confined by the shallow dogmas of our world.
Anything you do, for a copious amount of time every day that has no positive impact directly on your life, (Take a moment to reflect on what that thing is for you). it is absolutely stagnating the development of your independent mind; gradually killing your “I” nature. Such activities are culprits of dysfunctional lifestyles and frayed potential. Our reliance on certain frivolous habits to fill a void often just makes us servants to such noxious desires, so much so that we are unable to in any amount of might control them and we simply succumb to the slightest sparkle of such thoughts in our minds, because we have come to rely on them to occupy an emptiness on the inside.
The consequences that are inherently attached to just plunging in whatever habit the local or global community has approved to be the trend is psychologically harmful, it poses a great risk to true self-recognition, self-esteem, character strength and mental depth, all major features of human development in every facet. No one whom by doing “just” what they are told can become creatively independent, because their minds have been conditioned to only receive instructions and not create them. There is nothing unique about a mind that cannot produce any original thought, a mind that cannot think for itself on how to be independent or judge without any external influence, whether or not an act aids or destroys its progress. Such mind is left to fallow, it exists but is not alive. Reasoning is absent.
How then is society the mass murderer, you ask?
We live in a manic dispensation that systematically ostracizes any individual that inadvertently or rather wilfully decides against and defies the norms and culture it has set up, however unwholesome it seems…
“You either must forego your precepts to blend in or rather uphold them and become a social pariah. Your choice.”
The society has carefully crafted this unspoken slogan for itself, and you find it to be truer than it sounds when you have experienced loneliness in its cursed abyss of existence. You are forced to think no other ultimatum exists, therefore rather than fight a jaundiced sentimentality, you subscribe. It is hard enough trying to find the perfect fit for our lives and that is after one must have assiduously laboured to decipher who they are, but now they have to also battle against the tyranny of conventionalism. It is just too laborious a lifestyle to keep; being principled, self-sufficient, autonomously oriented, pensive and refined, not to even mention how excruciatingly lonely that lifestyle choice is. It is always easier to travel the wider path and so we do.
Hence, the society produces a stereotype; an array of individuals with a similarly induced mind-set, nothing original, innate or profoundly intellectual, just a large bunch of folks having a confined variety of vices influencing their decision making.
It is not so much that we lack the ability to restrain ourselves from the excessive indulgence of these insidious vices but more that we are buoyed by the environment surrounding us to see them as the norm, so we are unable to defend it to our conscience how irresponsible and un-necessary those habits are but rather become convinced that if so many people are on that path, it sure must be the right one. Our minds often times only judge something to be right or wrong based on its percentage of approval by the society. The most ridiculous things like “planking” can be considered normal as long as more people
engage in the act, more so when it is categorized under things done for the sake of fun. It makes no sense but everyone is doing it, so why not, right?
Well, No.
Your mind is a distinctively impressionable tool, evolving at every turn, dependent on what you allow it to access over a long duration of time. So, if you subject it to the vices of debauchery and obscenity, the chances of you being a sex offender are almost guaranteed and if you leave it at the helms of frivolous and unscrupulous practices, then the simpleton in you will thrive. On the other hand, if you employ it to the graces of intellectual undertakings, to reasoning out and scrutinizing everything under the sun on their degree of necessity, importance and mind-empowering advantage, then the sky will be but a starting point.
