Why do you think you make the decisions you make?
Because you have to? Because you like to? Because you were told it was the right thing? Or because you actually thought it out yourself, thought out the results the decision would get you, thought out how you would feel after you made the decision, and thought out why your decision actually made the most sense to you and in accordance with your own values.
I have found more than a few times in my life that what everyone else tells me is the right thing, feels like the wrong thing for myself and my own reasoning. And usually when I take the time to explain why I chose to do an action, I'm given respect for it--even if who I am talking to would never do it themselves.
When I tell people my choices--I don't expect or desire any sort of conversion. I don't expect them to change their moral compass to one similar to mine. I don't even expect them to agree with me. I only expect respect. Respect for the fact that I take the time to logistically seek out what I want from my life and what makes me feel good about myself and what I am doing. And respect that their values are different from mine--and we can still co-exist.
I'll always respect someone with different values than mine if their path of logic is sensible and good-hearted. I especially like it when people aren't afraid to say that they feel differently than me, or anyone else for that matter, because it shows they have courage and believe in what they are doing. It's boring and unrefreshing to see people who clearly disagree, stay silent because they are afraid. What are they living for anyway? Clearly not their values--which are the most VALUABLE thing.
When people disagree with each other, but they respectfully tell each other why they disagree with each other, everyone learns something, as long as the two people are sensible and logical. We all can teach each other how to learn and grow by showing each other what we feel strongly is right, and why it is right. That's how new inventions are made and that's how people come together and grow together.
There will always be people out there who are a horrible combination of closed-minded and self-righteous. But guess what? Those are the people who do nothing for anyone else and are usually forgotten. Can you think of anyone in history who succeeded without making mistakes and admitting to them? Every person I can think of who we all respect now, fought for beliefs that were different than everyone elses, made mistakes and admitted to them, and had the courage to keep going, failure after failure. And inevitably, they taught everyone around them something new. Can you do that? Or do you want to keep doing what everyone else does, even though sometimes you feel it's not the right thing? (Granted, sometimes what everyone else is doing is actually the right thing. This entry is not about rebelling against people unnecessarily. It's about being a good person with a good foundation, using LOGIC.)
Here are some beliefs I have that completely don't match up with many of the people's around me. And while I do believe, in many cases, that the people around me are wrong, I accept that people are different me, and many have their own proper reasoning for why they feel the way they do.
I don't think that highschool children should be pressured to go to college, and especially not expensive ones.
--I wasted a ton of money going to college. I hated it, had health issues that prevented me from walking to class a lot of days, I dropped classes, and I eventually had to switch to a much more affordable community college. It was the utterly and completely, the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life, to go to college when A) I felt so unsure of what I wanted to do, and B) I had health issues that made walking to my classes extremely unrealistic for me. I also was pressured a lot by people important to me, that I in fact was NOT feeling as poorly as I was. I've had to put up with, frankly, a ton of ignorance and blind-sidedness to become the strong person I am today. What I conclude now from all of this is that college is NOT right for everyone. All it did for me, was drain me of my finances and make my life harder.
Furthermore, I don't think you have to have a fabulous job or be making middle-class/upper-class wages to be a respectable person.
--How much money you make or your college degree is no indication of your values. So you studied hard in school--that just means you have a good work-ethic. And while that's a good quality to have if you are doing something you believe in (if you're working hard to do something you hate, I don't see the point), it reveals nothing of what is actually important to you. Practically everyone in the country is telling their children to go to college--that college is success. What actually makes you successful as a person is, you guessed it, your personal values. What makes you happy, the love and the goodness you bring to the world, your care for your fellow man-kind, your open-mindedness, your inner-strength, your balance, your desire to prevent disagreement and bring knowledge to others...those are the REAL values, the stuff that counts. And they're reflected not by a college education, but by what you say to other people and how you treat them and the world around you.
Case-in-point: Do we need doctors? Yes. 100%. But I'll always respect a doctor more when they are down-to earth and don't act holier-than-thou. An arrogant doctor is an idiot doctor in my eyes. Because all they did is work their asses off to get to where they are. For all we know, a doctor could be doing their job for the money. They aren't showing us their true values until we get to know the person within.
Further, I believe you should be frightened of arrogance. Arrogance often-times is what creates issues like plunging into a situation because of confidence and then making mistakes because one was too confident and didn't weigh the costs of their decisions, and furthermore, arrogance often causes people to place blame on other factors, such as other people or the situation, even though the mistake was clearly made by the arrogant one themselves. People who are arrogant have stunted-self-growth, and usually become grown up children because they believe so heartily that they are right about things, that they don't see when they are wrong.
And unfortunately for humanity, we tend to be swayed by arrogance. When you see someone confidently endorsing something, you're more likely to grab it than someone who is shyly endorsing it. The shy person could be the one in the right, but because the other person displayed it confidently, you might make the wrong decision based on the fact that it was confidently portrayed to you. This is why your values are SO IMPORTANT. Using logic, they keep your feet on the ground and they keep you from being swayed by illusion. By being open-minded, they also help you grow.
So those are my thoughts on that.
