Self-Reliance Doesn’t Mean Going Alone
Free your mind
If you were a high school junior in New York State during the 1980s, there’s a good chance an excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance was required reading.
My dutiful butt was in the chair, but my mind was wandering the halls and humming jazz music, until I heard the phrase “a foolish consistency is a hobgoblin of little minds.”
Shazam! Did some dead guy just give me permission to throw off routines and disciplines? I believed he did. Ah, youth…
Fools rush in
Admittedly, it was too many years before I heard all the words. “A foolish consistency….” Not all consistency is foolish. Brushing teeth and sending birthday wishes are among repeated tasks that help me engage with the world with physical and emotional well-being. Taking notes and writing down action items keep me between the lines on the professional highway. When being consistent comes from unquestioningly going along, however, it might be time to ask a few questions. Is this foolish? Which is to ask, Why am I doing, believing, reading, a thing, and Does this get me closer to my objectives?
In the same essay, Emerson warned the reader, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.” (As is often the case, what is…
