Are you your own person? Well, are ya', punk?!

"Free your motherfuckin' mind on this motherfuckin' plane, Neo." -- some black guy in some movie I saw.

Okay, kids...you've had a few days to think about the implications of your thoughts and beliefs not being entirely your own. If you did really think about this, did it scare the shit out of you? It should. It should send shivers down your spine and maybe even make you question your humanity, or what it even means to be human, or possibly bring up that Big Kahuna question: If we are just going through the motions, following a program, then why are we here?

This is all good, baby.

It's good because the world isn't black-and-white; it isn't even grayscale. It's full-blown technicolor and messy and hurtling through space at thousands of miles per hour -- and most of us assume incorrectly that someone else is in charge of things. (Calm down! I'm not denying the existence of a Higher Power! We'll get to that later!). If you're going to thrive -- hell, survive -- you need some skills and some tools. But first, you need to want to.

As for me, I believe that the world can be a better place for all of us. Period. But it won't happen unless a quorum of us are actively trying to make that happen. And I believe that will only be motivated by everyone wanting to help themselves first; the truly altruistic among us are few and far between. Most folks stay tuned into station WII-FM: What's In It For Me? And that's OK as a starting point, because "the world" changing for the better only has meaning for people if it is changing for the better for people.

And that will only happen when individual people decide they want to change for the better, and then learn how. Until that happens, things won't change for the better for anybody.

And in keeping with that, let me give you this to meditate upon:

All human achievement begins in the mind.

Ready to start being a shepherd instead of a sheep? A producer instead of just a consumer? Or even just your own person making his own choices in life for a change? Then roll the dice and pass "Go":

http://www.helium.com/tm/345283/simply-critical-thinking-skills
http://www.helium.com/tm/351038/develop-critical-thinking-through

Phil