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I am me – (living by my own authority).
Written by: Andrew Campbell-WattArticle Overview: I am me. I am not you. I am comfortable (I think) with my beliefs, with my likes and dislikes, with my judgements and opinions; I try to be as honest as I can; I try to be truthful; I try to be kind and compassionate and generally try to behave towards other people as I would like them to behave towards me. In other words I like to think of myself as an ordinary kind of bloke trying to live by my understanding and interpretation of events and circumstances. In other words I am trying to live by my own authority.
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I am me – (living by my own authority).
I am me. I
am not you. I am comfortable (I think) with my beliefs, with my likes and
dislikes, with my judgements and opinions; I try to be as honest as I can; I
try to be truthful; I try to be kind and compassionate and generally try to
behave towards other people as I would like them to behave towards me. In other
words I like to think of myself as an ordinary kind of bloke trying to live by
my understanding and interpretation of events and circumstances. In other words
I am trying to live by my own authority.
And yet
how many of us do things, have beliefs or have interpretations of events which
we never worked out for ourselves – ones accepted by us because we heard them
on ‘talk back’ radio, or saw them on TV or read about them somewhere - ones
spoken or written about by someone we consider an ‘authority figure’? This
means accepting, even if subconsciously, the decisions of someone else, who, we
must think, also subconsciously, knows more, knows better. Otherwise why should
we accept their opinion, their view of the world and how we should interpret
it?
To accept
someone else’s decision is to accept their view of what they think our lives
should be and how we should live it. In other words (whether we actually like
it or not) we conform to someone else’s set of values, someone else’s views of
life, not our own. We are not living by our own authority. This reduces our
range of choices, our range of actions because we are constrained by what we
think someone else would do in the situation presented. We may have followed
someone else’s directions for so long that when we are presented with a
situation that demands our input we are unable or unwilling to do so. We are
now unable to think for ourselves or to make a judgement based or our own
interpretation of events. To have arrived at this point means we are now
controlled; we have been diminished as human beings and are unable to live by
our own authority.
Very few
of the judgements we make on a daily basis, about what is “right” or “wrong”
for us, are made by us, based on our true understanding of the situation as
presented. It often seems that the more important the decision, the less likely
we are to rely on our own thoughts and ideas, based on our own experiences.
Advertisers tell us what we should buy – what we ‘deserve’; we are told what
books to read, or music to listen to; we are told what fashion dictates we
should wear and such like. Statisticians tell us that it is a statistical
probability that, being a male in a certain age group and with certain racial
physical characteristics and with certain religious beliefs, we will have
certain likes and dislikes, be of a certain height, be overweight, even obese
and have this or that medical problem and that when presented with an ethical
dilemma we will answer in this or that way. But we are not a ‘probability’ – we
are human beings.
No doubt
it is a great nuisance to business and strategic planners that mankind is not
uniform but compounded of individuals with their own likes and dislikes and
their own interpretation of events and situations.
One does
not do something to be happy – one IS happy and does something to express it.
One does not do something to be ethical – one IS ethical and does something to
express those ethical ideals. We don’t need someone else to tell us – we act on
our own authority.
So it
should be with all activities.
In
business it is assumed that things are different and that money, cash flows and
profit margins are the beginning and the end of the business model. This is not
so.
As has
been repeatedly stated in these articles, money is a human construct, has no
intrinsic value and that its principle use is as a medium of exchange in the
facilitation of trade. To place the consideration of money before the
consideration of people and the environment that sustains life as we know it,
abrogates the duty of care that everyone in business must have regarding their
staff and customers – those very people who provide the money those in business
so desperately seek. Such a positioning of money first, before people,
alienates the employee from the organization in that they become an accessory
to that organization, rather than being seen as a part of it; as a human being
doing something for him or herself to help the organization. If this is the
corporate mentality then the customer will be similarly alienated. People are
not a means to an end – making money. To consider them as such is unjust and
creates a great deal of disharmony and distress.
The
‘economy’ cannot be paramount – it is ‘humanity’ that is paramount. It is not
humanity that is set free by competition; it is, rather, capital that is set
free. To consider anything else means that the ‘market’ comes to dominate humanity.
Commerce
and industry must again revert to the position of the servant of humanity and
never try to subvert this wherein humanity is considered the servant of
commerce and industry.
Life is
about choices and no one can make a choice for you, that suites you – be it as
an employee or customer. It is your life and you need to live it your way, as
you see fit to bring you peace of mind – your mind, not someone else’s. You
need to live by your own authority – yours, not someone else’s.
It is
unhelpful for the individual to be ‘categorized’, to be considered a
‘statistical probability’ – again this is someone else’s idea of what we should
be or do. The essence of every life is the fulfilment of the potential each is
born with. All human life is bound to individuals who manifest it, and it is
simply inconceivable without them. But every human is charged with an
individual destiny and destination, and the journey to that destination or the
fulfilment of that destiny is the only thing that makes sense of life. We are
all members of the species ‘Homo Sapiens’ (reasoning man) why not try to live
up to the promise of that and live by our own authority?
There is
no need to change yourself, just BE yourself. How can you be successful in your
life if you live by someone else’s ideas? You must live by your own authority.
Article Tags: authority, bloke, circumstances, commerce and industry, duty of care, ethical dilemma, humanity, judgements, likes and dislikes, unjust
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About the Author: Andrew Campbell-Watt RSS for Andrew's articles - Visit Andrew's website Andrew Campbell-Watt is a qualified Life Coach. During the journey of his life he has also picked up two degrees - a Bachelor of Psychology and Bachelor of Commerce - and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business. Along the way he has also gathered a life time of study and practical experience in moral philosophy,ethics and stress management. These he has applied in his forty odd years in business, for himself and as an employee. He has since found increasing need to use his special skills in helping people through the emotional turmoil of retirement and the many attendant issues. His wide experience in a variety of industries give him a unique platform to mentor and reach out to help anyone who has difficulty in finding peace of mind and some measure in their life, in what is an increasingly complex and anxious world. Click here to visit Andrew's website What Gandhi said For want of a nail Complete not perfect The Office Bully Have you become a commodity |
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