There is a status quo out there, and whether you have a lot of room and options, or few, depends on who submissive you are to that prevailing wind of the status quo. To put it plainly, you have few options, if . . . you do not conform to the status quo. I don’t give a damn how independent you are, you will need to conform to the current and ride the rapids and find a niche in the current to ride in and get buy with the simple life. All the positive thinking the world will not change a thing, otherwise. FACT!

And the reward for being your own man? You can sleep well and night and feel good about yourself and that is worth a lot in my book!

To counter that thinking, I’d suggest adapting an old aviation equation that describes how to fly. It simply states, Power + Attitude = Performance. What it means is that the goal is to set power and attitude, and wait. Eventually, when the instruments settle down, and any transitory accelerations are balanced, the instruments will indicate the desired performance if we set the right power and attitude of the aircraft relative to the horizon.

Similarly, Will Power + Mental Attitude = Human Performance. How well or badly we perform will depend on two things – the strength of our will, and our mental attitude. Therefore, we can have a strong will, and a very negative attitude, and achieve a high level of negative performance, or a weak will, and a very positive attitude, and we’ll continually stall because we’re incapable of sustaining our extreme positivity. There are a variety of permutations and combinations that you can derive from those two examples, which will be more clear if you have a pilot license.

If not, it doesn’t matter, just realize how the two variables interrelate to produce our performance over time, and that we can vary both infinitely. Often, because we subconsciously recognize our negativity, we limit our will power so we don’t do too much harm to others or ourselves. This is a very good sign that our heart’s in the right place, which is what you’re displaying. For example, we wouldn’t want to follow the example of a Hitler, or Stalin, since we’d imagine they caused untold harm due to a negative attitude allied with a strong will.

Of course, if we could know the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about what caused them to act as they did, we might be less inclined to judge them too. Truth is stranger than fiction after all.

So, what I’m trying to say is that Mark Twain was right when he said, “It ain’t what we don’t know that gets us into trouble. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” That implies that our perception of the world has been coloured by so many things we’ve forgotten, but are still exerting an influence decades later, and are continually being reinforced with new programming. The only way to correct that flawed programming is to go through things methodically, and “Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.”

Consider it spring cleaning for the mind, and prepare to be shocked at how much you throw out. It is tough going but the benefit is that, “…..ye shall know the truth. And the truth shall set you free.”