Personal Sovereignty leads to Exceptionalism

It’s not the flag, it’s what it represents. It’s not the national anthem, it’s what it represents. It’s not the country, it’s what it represents. It’s not you, it’s what you represent. Arrogance is nothing else than proudness of one’s insufficiencies. An arrogant individual is one who clings to things that do not exist or that ceased to exist. The opposite of an arrogant individual is someone who seeks to do something exceptionally. It is the desire to become exceptional, perfect, what makes people believe in something greater, is perfection personified. No human being will ever reach perfection and all individuals know it, consciously or unconsciously. Once an individual understands it, there is a fork on the road. One way, the difficult one, will take that individual into struggle, hardship and, ultimately, success, satisfaction, and realization. Hard work, effort, and discipline are the three fundamentals of any process that seeks a meaningful outcome. There is no other way to succeed. The other way is the emergency exit, which most people take because they do not want or don’t know how to handle struggle, hardship and much less put hard work, effort, and discipline into their lives. Individuals are all born ordinary and become extraordinary only if they work hard, to achieve what they believe is worth their time and effort. Often times, that outcome that individuals think is worthwhile changes over time and the goal post is moved to further distances until a new level of fulfillment is reached. As F.A. Hayek explains, “Man did not simply impose upon the world a pattern created by his mind. His mind is itself a system that constantly changes as a result of his endeavor to adapt himself to his surroundings. It would be an error to believe that, to achieve a higher civilization, we have merely to put into effect the ideas now guiding us.” It is a combination of situations that take place in our lives and around it that we realize that despite being successful at something, or perhaps because of it, there comes a time when change is needed. Change is one of the few certain things in life. Change and physical death. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl said, “The struggle for existence is a struggle ‘for’ something; it is purposeful, and only in so being is it meaningful and able to bring meaning into life.” Frankl taught, “We must never be content with what has already been achieved. Life never ceases to put new questions to us, never permits us to come to rest.” In his book The doctor and the Soul, Frankl writes: “The man who stands still is passed by; the man who is smugly contented loses himself. Neither in creating or experiencing may we rest content with achievement; every day, every hour makes new deeds necessary and new experiences possible.” So, if life is an experience where change is constant, why does society ask teens to make up their minds about what they want to do and who they want to be for the rest of their time on planet earth? Isn’t that too much to ask when not even grown adults have the ability to do so? Today, changing careers or partners is still seen by many as a sign of failure by that who decided to take a different road towards fulfillment. Change cannot be taken lightly though. What if that change turns out to be negative? What if along the way, the challenges are too great to handle? What if the emergency exit seems too convenient and you decide to take it? Is this the moment when the search for perfection is over? For many individuals, it will be over the moment they go through that emergency exit. They will become resentful, hateful of themselves and not having enough room in the minds and hearts to keep all that resentment and hatred, they begin to reflect them onto others. How can a bad day, a bad week or a bad month turn someone into a self-hating nihilist? Hate and nihilism are not the first two feelings that result from failure. The individual is first taken over by humiliation and guilt. Later, these two feelings grow so large that they transform into hatred about himself. The same hatred then becomes uncontrollable and it is projected towards others. Who? All those who made it, who achieved success, fulfillment, and in the eyes of many, perfection. The perfect life. That is what most individuals are after. Unfortunately, they do not know what that a perfect life requires. What the multitude sees is success after it has been achieved; that tip of the iceberg that “requires” idolatry from those who never made it big. But even for those who never made it as they expected, the emergency exit comes accompanied with a prize, which in their eyes resembles the previously desired level of success. A lucky break, they call it. A temporary, quick and easy fix to skip some levels so that anyone can get that much closer to that slippery preferred outcome. Unfortunately, the easy way out that was going to bring success does not work. There was no lucky break, no temporary solution, no fast lane to reach success, greatness or perfection. At this point, having no more options to choose from, the individual gives up and jumps into a toxic mental waste pool. Don’t you […] Read the rest below at the source link