Comments | drmagoo: #trust30, day 21

drmagoo

#trust30, day 21

Jun 20, 2011 07:18

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson ( Read more... )

Comments 9

lifepart3 June 20 2011, 15:57:12 UTC

You and I went similar directions on this, probably because we're both guilty of being stubbornly independent. There are plenty of people who should reject the status quo and think for themselves, but we're plenty guilty of the opposite extreme.

drmagoo June 20 2011, 16:37:08 UTC

Yeah, I didn't even really go in that direction. There are certainly people who live their lives according to what others tell them to do - I have students who do that, for example - and that's not healthy. But this seemed to be phrased in the opposite direction, and I think that's just silly. Just as I can't live my life by following someone else's directives all the time, I know that I don't have all the answers. Sometimes, I'll ask for advice, but sometimes, I need to be told that I'm being a screwup even when I don't want to hear it.

annieover June 20 2011, 20:30:33 UTC

Learning that I didn't have all the answers was a tough process for me. I still struggle with it.

drmagoo June 20 2011, 20:56:36 UTC

It's a tough one. I want to be the guy with the answers - it's a good role for me, and when I have the answers, I feel like a person who's contributing a lot. But I don't have them more often than I usually want to admit.

Thread 7

Can you both agree and disagree? ext_674528 June 20 2011, 16:12:47 UTC

I agree with your point about the value others can contribute. And I don't think Jen was encouraging people not to solicit input when it could be beneficial. When you're willing, and able to your point about the twigs and the trees, to go within, you know whether to incorporate outside guidance. Because when you can, you know whether it's a reflection of inside guidance or a detour.

Re: Can you both agree and disagree? drmagoo June 20 2011, 16:40:36 UTC

I think that sometimes we need to take advice even when we don't want it and don't solicit it. People who are in the grips of addiction, or depression, or other unhealthy life patterns don't always seek out advice on how to make their lives better - that doesn't mean they don't need the advice. They won't always listen - I know there's plenty of times I don't - but that doesn't make the advice any less necessary, in my mind.