“I thought for myself” would be a remarkable epitaph on your headstone if you had truly lived that life. A person of continual applied learning isn’t afraid to be alone with their thoughts among a crowd. They needn’t profess all of their thoughts with others, but should keep with these thoughts to set their own course toward their own purpose.

It’s much less important for what you say among the crowd than what you will decide to do in your actions from that point on in time. Over time, others will come to see your actions and interpret their meaning for themselves, whereas immediate words would only be judged in the moment. We must decide for ourselves what we will aspire to learn and what we will become through our actions in our life’s journey.

Don’t waste time with idle words to insinuate to be following the herd or even to be divisive in barking out against it. Think, learn and progress by your actions for yourself. Don’t simply adopt a message or quote to repeat it, take in the thought more deeply as it applies to your learning and apply it yourself in your own unique way as an example for others to see. Do this on behalf of your unique purpose and the most critical relationships in your life, not despite them.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson —

MITM