Learn To Know Yourself...

Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did.
George Carlin

Although this quote by George Carlin was meant to be funny, it describes way too many of us today. Maybe it's because of too much information available everywhere. Maybe it's because we read to much or maybe read too little. Maybe it's because we no longer have any opinions of our own, but instead are swayed by the opinions of others.

Instead of striving to be an acceptable member of the mob, our time would be better spent in improving our position as a functioning, thinking and self-supporting individual!

The individual is the one that will find the way to get something done which is best for him. Without the input or guidance or interference of another, the individual is forced to accept the responsibility of getting the job done. In the end, the individual must succeed or fail on his own.

Now this is not to say that the ideas and solutions put forth by the individual cannot be improved upon. On the contrary, once put into practise even the individual creator sometimes sees the need for improvement. That's when the input of others can be of the greatest use.

An idea that is working, no matter how poorly, is much easier to improve upon than one that has not been put into practise yet. That's when we start to learn from the mistakes of our past and the mistakes of others.

What I am trying to convey here is the fact that we should all be an individual first, standing on our own two feet, solving our own problems, implementing and putting into action our own ideas, no matter how poorly they work. The important thing at first is that we make them work!

Once we prove to ourselves that we can work and succeed as an individual, then we can become a more productive and contributing member of a team or group of our choosing. We now know how to share ideas, how to expound on our own experiences with failures and the causes of them, and perhaps by the sharing of them we can learn more from them than before.

We also gain a certain knowledge, maybe the most important knowledge that we will ever attain! The knowledge of who and what we are as individuals. And most importantly, somewhere along the way we find that we actually like ourselves. Once you like yourself, you can begin the long and sometimes tedious task of learning to know and like others as well.

No one ever said it was going to be easy, but the hardest part of any journey is always the first step. Now, how about some fresh coffee, my friend?