Have a Mind of Your Own

 

We’ve all been blessed with a brain. Why is it then that we find ourselves following what someone else thinks? Examples:

There are lakhs of people supporting Anna Hazaare. His methods to fight corruption must be the best and I wear the ‘I am Hazaare’ cap. Herd mentality.

70% students of my class are answering CAT this year. I am not sure of how an MBA can help me but let me try CAT too. Welcome to the RAT race.

All my friends have a smart phone, I must have one too. I spend 20K to buy one. Peer Pressure.

My friend went to Maldives for their first anniversary, we should go too. Influence.

It is simple to get swayed by such happenings around us. However, it limits our ability to make our OWN decisions – choices made after putting in quality time and thought, analyzing the situation, the problem at hand and the viable solution. It requires stressing our grey cells, spending time in prodding an issue and coming up with a logical solution. When we make such informed decisions, we are sure to succeed in implementing them. We are convinced of the resulting actions and have our logic to back up our belief. This is a learning process. And it is worth all the effort.

After all, it helps our mind be our OWN.

So next time you are presented with an idea, give it a THOUGHT before you give it your NOD.