The never-ending experiment… (pt 2)
Let’s walk further into this never-ending experiment:
As we navigate through life, we absorb a great deal of information, only to unlearn much of it as we grow. And with learning and unlearning, our identity fluctuates due to the always changing information presented in the world we live in. So here’s the question - how much of the world influences your identity?
To answer that, we need to look at our variables - the independent variable is the world. Since “the world” is a broad term that encompasses various influences, for simplicity’s sake, we’ll group it together as environment, culture, friends, experiences, and all the things. Here you’ll think about areas like where you live, what books you read, the songs you listen to, the movies you watch, who your friends are, what conversations you entertain, the food you eat, what you spend your money on, and so forth. These are the areas you can control based on the decisions you choose to make. The dependent variable is your identity. This is what you’ll measure to see how it changes based on the adjustments to the independent variable. In other words, to collect your data and results, you’ll just need to adjust the volume of worldly input you consume daily and observe the levels at which your identify changes. Simple enough, right?
Research confirms that the world has a significant influence over our identity. It shapes how you perceive yourself within the context of social groups, societal norms, and expectations. Now, this is the same information that most individuals have access to, and with most individuals knowing this, many still look to the world to label them, to dictate how they should behave, and to set the standards for which they live by. Think about it - in a world of which the information is always changing, many turn to it for answers about their identity.
Where many of us go wrong is that we’re looking in the wrong direction for answers. This wrong direction is worldly standards that is built on a shaky foundation. This shaky foundation is plastered with lies to appear as the truth. It’s meant to confuse you. To deceive you. To manipulate you. And to keep you in the same unhealthy condition until you no longer expect better results, you hope for them. Hope is good, but when it is rooted in lies, deception, manipulation, and keeping you in a slave mentality, nothing good will come from it.
So where do you go from here?
Well, the shaky foundation is what’s keeping you in this never-ending experiment, so the only other option is to shift focus to the direction of a solid foundation. The foundation that has been in place since the beginning.
Morgan