Just Enough and Nothing More

We all know the “rules”, right? Burping is rude, don’t call someone after 9pm, work hard to get ahead, you can’t go through life doing only things that make you happy, do what you’re supposed to do.

Where do all these “rules” come from? There is a voice in ours heads telling us what these rules are. When we hear these voices in our head, who are they the voices of?

I am particularly wondering about those “rules” about education. “Kids have to learn good penmanship.” “We must teach them multiplication tables to make sure they won’t work at McDonald’s.” “If we don’t teach our kids a foreign language by the time they are 4, they’ll never be fluent.” “We need to test them to make sure they are “on track.”

Whatever we tell ourselves in our heads, these messages came from somewhere.

Imagine something you strongly, strongly believe. Whatever it is. Then, imagine, for a second, that you said the exact opposite. Who in your life would cringe in horror? Who would react badly to the opposite of what you believe?

Who is really telling us how to do things? Whose voice are we listening to?

I bring this up because we have all been socialized to think a certain way. What if we dared, for a moment, to challenge that? What would happen?

I challenge you to do this. Challenge those voices in your head that say you can’t, you should, you have to, you aren’t good enough, things have to be a certain way. See what happens. And find out who you end up arguing with in your head when you do this.

What you do with that information is up to you. Perhaps it can free you.

Related posts:

1. Video Games Makes Kids Anti Social? Maybe Not
2. Not Getting Work Done By 3pm
3. Two Kinds of Rules
4. Passing Down Non-Mainstream Values
5. Making Things Easier