Stand on Your Own Two Feet

With the privilege of being an individual, we have the responsibility

to shape and form our life through our choices. Be the person you
are meant to become. Be a rugged individualist, a nonconformist. The
secondhand thoughts and beliefs you inherited from tradition may
very
well not be the truth as you’ve come to know it.
You have to take a stand within yourself. Being tough minded,
thinking things through for yourself, is the only way to be able to
stand
in the center of your essence and think challenging thoughts that
bring
out truth and clarity as you pursue your extraordinary natural talents.
In Emerson’s essay “Success,” he laments, “It is rare to find a man
who
believes his own thought or who speaks that which he was created to
say.
As nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain
dealing,
so nothing is more rare in any man than an act of his own … Feel
yourself,
and be not daunted by things …The light by which we see in this world
comes out from the soul of the observer.”
Who are some of your heroes throughout history? Who do you look
to for inspiration and guidance? Who are some of the brilliant artists
who
have pointed the way toward transcendent beauty and divine
thoughts of
unity and love? What poets do you read and study? Who are the
spiritual
teachers who point the way for you? Who are your favorite presidents?
Take a few moments to write down a few of your favorite people, your

light bearers, those who have helped you to become a more critical
thinker.
As a fun exercise, write a few words, a sentence or two, next to the
name
of someone you greatly admire. For Aristotle, I write, “The good life
is the life of excellence, based on the principle of the Golden Triangle
of what is true, good, and beautiful, the Golden Mean between the two
extremes of too much and too little. Happiness is the aim, the goal,
and
the purpose of life.”
Some of the people I most admire are original thinkers who have
struggled to find the truth and wisdom from within their own essential
nature, who have been guided by their intuition to be true to their
higher
self. Michelangelo taught us, “To confide in one’s self, and become
something of worth and value, is the best and safest course.”
Who are you in your core? What do you really think and feel? What
do you accept as truth and what do you reject? I was so fortunate to
be
saved from developing a closed mind when I was taken around the
world
at sixteen and exposed to radically different cultures. My brilliant aunt
was my guide; she saved me by taking me away from a preppy town
in
Connecticut and thrusting me into the dusty streets of Calcutta. Who
I was on the Pan American flight going to Rome and who I was three
months later, flying back from Hawaii, were two different people. I
grew
up fast. I immediately outgrew the petty prejudices, the shallow
gossip,
and the snickering. Westport, Connecticut, was no longer my whole
world. I returned to my studies in New York and never went back to
Westport.
This life-changing experience continues to grow in my consciousness
each day and has for more than forty-five years. I feel I’ve been able
to
accept personal responsibility for my life. I don’t blame others or outer
circumstances for my unrealized dreams or my unrealistic
expectations. I
know I’m accountable for the choices I freely make in the training of
my
own mind through study and contemplation.
Many of us have been brainwashed while growing up. I often say that
our task is to unlearn so much of what we’ve been taught. As we
stretch

ourselves into the originality of a new idea, we won’t lose our sense of
gravity. We’ll actually feel more security, more grounding in the truth.
In
Emerson’s well-known essay “Self-Reliance,” he tells us, “Nothing is at
last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to
yourself.”
In the late 1980s, Peter and I spent many long weekends one
summer in Bermuda, where we enjoyed our days writing. During these
memorably fun “writer’s workshops,” I remember teasing Peter as we
heard the local church clock bong twelve times, and he hadn’t begun
to
write. “Researching, eh, Peter?” The weekends required writing,
arising
out of reading, as there comes a time when you have to put pen to
paper. It
is far easier to read great literature when you don’t yet feel ready to
plunge
into a blank sheet of paper and express something fresh and new.
One of my favorite sayings of the ancient Chinese sage Lao Tzu is
“The
journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Challenge yourself
to
mentally step outside of your family and community, get away from
the
superfi cial chitchat in your head and go into the depths of your being
to
discover who you are, why you are here, what choices you should
make to
be able to put your innate talents to the best use. The author of The
Little
Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, taught us, “What saves a man is to
take
a step. Then another step.” On and on and on, we must try with each
step
we take to listen to our own voice, really believe what we believe, live
our
own philosophy, and be true to who we are meant to become.
We are pure potential. Striving is our birthright. We’re here to grow, to
discover, to explore and develop our full powers. When we move
onward
and upward we’re more in control, we push our limits. The higher we
climb, the more alive we feel, the happier we are, the more confi dent
we
become that our life has meaning. When we choose to stand on our
own
two feet, we maintain our balance; if we fall, we stand up again. The
tougher the challenge, the greater the sense of victory.
My favorite French sixteenth-century essayist Montaigne wrote in Late
Bloomers, “There is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we
must
still walk on our own legs.” There are great inner resources in each of
us.

Stand tall where you are. All the people who accept their responsibility
to use their minds and gifts responsibly are adding their originality
and
inborn talents to the universe.
It is our turn now to carry on this enterprise, making our unique
contribution to the world. Any form of imitation is dishonest. We have
all the giants from the past to learn from, and then we have to let go
and
rely on ourselves. There is a Japanese proverb: “Fall seven times,
stand up
eight.” There is greatness inside you. Keep on keeping on, as you
choose
to use this gift of potential for your own satisfaction and for the benefi
t
of the world. Keep challenging your physical, intellectual, and spiritual
choices. Stand up for yourself, stand on your own two feet, and stand
tall,
firm in your convictions to live up to your higher self.