From a young age, you are appointed. Appointed to what and by whom? By your parents as “old enough to stay home alone.” By your institutions as “educated enough to enter the full time work force.” By your employers as “responsible enough for promotion.”
Ask yourself these important question:
1) Have you become mentally conditioned by all this external appointment?
2) Have you given your power to someone or something outside of yourself?
Could this be the invisible Great Wall of China that’s blocking you from rocketing toward your goals and reaching your full potential? For most of us, to one degree or another, the answer is “yes.”
From a young age, powerful forces within society condition you to undervalue who and what you are — so you will look to them for your own self-worth — so you will look to them for validation, power, and permission, through the appointments they bestow on you.
Yes, we have all been hypnotized into believing we are smaller than we really are. Just as a fishbowl keeps goldfish tiny … we have all to one extent or another been fooled into believing our value equals the size of our external appointments.
The question is not: Have you given your power to someone or something outside of yourself? But rather: How can you take it back?
Unlike a goldfish swimming around oblivious in a tank, you have a choice!
Power is an inside job. You do not need to import it from external sources. All you need do is peel away the lies you’ve been told — and went on to tell yourself — that are keeping you wading around in the kiddy pool of life.
Realize our school system, government, and industries reward dependency, NOT self-reliance … conformity, NOT innovation … slavery to the status quo, NOT fearless adventure into the unknown.
Aside from the 3Rs, (reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic) what you learn through formalized education is obsolete, outdated knowledge by the time you learn it. Worse, it is designed to prepare you to become a droid in a large vertically integrated company or institution the likes of which are disintegrating daily.
The result is the inevitable stunting of your initiative, creativity, and capacity for capitalist thinking. Naturally, you fail to appoint yourself captain of the myriad entrepreneurial opportunities around you. And then you wonder why external appointment eludes you.
Please don’t limit your life with these kinds of hideous hallucinations. Expand your beliefs to encompass the life you were born for. Emerson said, “Do the thing, and you will have the power.” You don’t need anyone’s permission.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Outstanding advice.
I like how you compare the fish bowl with growth. At one time, I was always referred to as the girl who lives in a tower. After hearing this phase several times from many different people in different locations, I thought about it and had to admit I focused in areas encouraged by my parents and closest friends and I chose to avoid distractions (Moms advice). I have passed up opportunities in the past, but I finally got where I wanted to be as far as becoming independent. I really wouldn’t change anything now. I am in a good place and feel free to distractions and that’s an awesome feeling!
Hi Bunny, to a great extent our growth will depend on the limits we impose on our personal definition of possibility. If we believe that anything is possible for us, and we consistently act on that belief, our reality will be amazing.
Jonathan,
Nice post. This one did a lot of work in a very short period. We are indeed conditioned by the institutions that dominate our society, as well as by the individuals that dominate our lives. Being able to reflect on your own values, develop your own principles, and act accordingly even when they are in conflict with this conditioning is the definition of integrity. Its tough, but man is it liberating!
Chris
Well said Chris, things could (maybe should) be structured so that conditioning increased our awareness of the vast world of possibility available. Since that’s rarely the case, it’s up to us as individuals to to appoint ourselves as the person in charge of our own direction.
Hmmm Jonathan,
I sense a bit of anger here, maybe a little frustration with what you are seeing around you….but that’s good.
A wake up call is often timely. “Power is an inside job” is a great reminder. We often do/have looked at external acceptance. Forget that, accept yourself firstly. Do a great enough job of that & external acceptance will flow to you without any effort. Love your work Jonathan.
be good to yourself
David
Hi David, no anger, just a little cage rattling. Hoping to shake lose some self imposed limiting beliefs and perhaps stimulate a new self appointment or two. I like to throw out a big wake up call every now and then and see what sticks. Thanks for your continued support David, really appreciated!
No worries, happy to be here.
Well said Jonathan. The problem for many is to get beyond just an intellectual understanding of what you just said and own and live our potential and rid ourselves of these external constraints.
Riley
That’s very true Riley, understanding something logically can only take us so far. If we are going to turn a concept into a reality, we need to truly believe that it is possible. When we know it is true and get emotionally vested in that belief, that’s when we will be motivated to claim authority over our own life.
What a powerful message. I like the way you use the concept of appointment to distinguish dependence on external appointments and self-appointments. This really hit home for me. Thank you!
Thanks Galen, distinguishing between those two sources of approval and direction really is the core point that we all need to understand.
Excellent post. I like the fish metaphor. It is very creative
Breaking free from our conditioning is an important and natural step in self-development. In the first phase of conditioning, we are happy because we learn to swim. At the moment, we can swim. We want more, but then we only see the wall of the tank.
And I believe just breaking free of your own wall, created by our own self-appointments is not enough. There is a need for a big “why”. Only if the “Why” is big enough, our own power can break free from our wall. If the “Why” is big enough, the how will follow.
What happens if you don’t have a “Why”, is shown in the movie “Fight Club”. After breaking free from his own condition, Tyler Durden become the leader of rebels and terrorist.
So being creative, showing initiative using capitalistic thinking is a much better “Why” to actually break free. I’m also in this phase of my life. And it is indeed hard. And the first step to break through is become aware of the self-appointment. Your 2 questions are very good one to help this process. Thanks for sharing.
Marc
Excellent point Marc, our reasons and motives are a powerful factor in the decisions we make and the actions we take. We can do anything if we have a compelling enough reason. I wrote about this in an article you might enjoy called Is Your Why Good Enough?
Dear Jonathan, it was about time someone put these thought patterns and beliefs into writing. Great work! Thx.
Great points. Do the thing, and you will have the power. What you’ll find is that as you “do the thing”, other things will begin to happen. You’ll find it easier to do things the next time. You’ll notice yourself thinking, “I can’t believe I did it- maybe I am the kind of person who does things like that.” And the shift in who you become in doing the thing will make doing anything else so much easier. Of course, if you don’t think you can do it, if you don’t know how to do it, if it’s all too much, if you’re not ready yet… just do the thing. Do the thing, and you will have the power.
Lynne
Hi Lynne, creating a positive feedback loop is a great way to start moving in a direction that feels challenging and build some momentum .
Jonathan:
Also, thanks for always providing such amazing wisdom and sharing your insights. I actually just wrote a post about the people who are amazing minds in the blogosphere (and you of course were one of the people I mentioned) and this post just serves as another example why you really are one of the greatest minds in the blogosphere. Great post.
Such a great post and I couldn’t agree more. I love your advice to not limit our life to “hideous hallucinations”. It can be so easy to fall into that trap and I think from time to time, we need to be shaken a little. Thanks for the shake
Hi Sibyl, thank you so much for including me in your post. I am truly honored and grateful. Those traps that you mentioned made me think about how important it is that we learn to recognize them so we can avoid falling in. Thanks so much for your support and encouragement.
Metamorphic!