|
|
Decide in advance who will be on each team. Get them fairly evenly matched. Identify with an asterisk by the name where they shall form the group. This speeds up the process.
Relevancy
This one is BIG on linking to Self-Actualization.
We look even deeper at YOU controlling what YOU will become. We look at who might control your life if YOU didn't do it yourself!
Introduction
We have talked about:
We now take these ideas farther, tying them all together.
The Self-Made Idea
In the final analysis, WE are responsible for who we become. We can make choices leading us to be a high quality person, or we can make choices leading towards failure. We can decide on our own Life-Goals and our own Life-Rules to help us reach those goals. We can make choices minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day to do things that bring us closer to being a high quality person. When we do these things we are "Self-Making."
Self-Made doesn't have anything to do with being selfish! As I use it, Self-Made is a very positive idea. A Self-Made person is one who makes conscious decisions about how he wants be. He then works on becoming that person. He is in charge of his own development.
The Self-Making person isn't trying to make a parent or a teacher happy. Instead, he is looking for ideas, skills, and mental tools to make him better because he WANTS to be the BEST he can be! He wants to be able to respect himself! He wants other people to respect him.
We Don't Need to "go it alone"
Say you want to build a house yourself. You could buy some plans and select materials and the things you want in your house. You buy lumber, plumbing stuff, tools, some do-it-yourself books, etc., and get to work! - - - It's not a good idea to go to architect school so you can draw your own plans, mine the ore to make the iron to make the nails that you have to invent to use to build the house! Use what already has been created!
Being self-made does not mean the person must totally invent himself. To do that would be to ignore the results of many great thinkers and the wisdom they have produced over the ages. None of us would be able to generate the wisdom of the many generations before us. Being self-made still allows you to pick and choose ideas presented by other people. "That is a good rule, and I understand how it works. I will internalize that rule and make it my own!" We can also add our own wisdom to the mix.
When you come across a new idea, decide if it will help you become better. You have to make a choice. Does it move you towards one or more of your good Life-Goals? Is it wise? Ask an adult you respect and trust to kick the idea around with you and look at it carefully. In future lessons you will learn tools to help you do this.
Remember that there are a LOT of trashy ideas out there. You have to recognize them, AND TRASH THEM! - - - DON'T let them trash you!
With this way of thinking, it is easy to listen to the wisdom of other people. After all, you are not the only person on earth that can think or be wise. We learn from each other. If someone has a better idea, GRAB IT! - - - Make it your own! It is treasure!
Self-Making requires that you make good choices. If you make bad choices, then you are building a bad future. Your first choices are to decide what kind of person you want to be. That is, to choose your own Life-Goals. Next you need to figure out or find some Life-Rules that will help you reach those Good Life-Goals. Because you are inexperienced (at first) with doing this, it would be good to talk your ideas over with a trusted older person, like a grandparent, parent, or teacher. They may be able to help you expand your understanding.
What if You are NOT Self-Made? (Who
would "build" you?)
Humans are very much goal-based and rule-based beings. We have them, and we live our lives by them, even if we don't realize we are doing so. You CANNOT escape that FACT of life.
If YOU do not carefully pick your own Life-Goals and Life-Rules, where will they come from? Does someone else pick them for you? Who? Why do they pick the Life-Goals and Life-Rules they try to put into your mind?
Where do they come from? From many sources, and it happens without us really being aware of it. We get Life-Goals and Life-Rules from TV, movies, books, games we play, TV or radio commercials, sales people, our friends, teachers, our families, and everything that comes into our eyes and ears from other people.
When we get our Life-Goals and Life-Rules this way, we end up with kind of a pile of uncoordinated goals and rules. And many of them contradict (go against) each other. It is like having a road map leading into your future that has squiggled lines going wildly all over the place. You end up making your decisions based upon whatever unconscious Life-Goal and Life-Rule happens to pop up at that moment!
"When you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." "Go Fish" singing group.
If you do not have a good road map to guide you, you will just sort of wander through life. You will make your choices based on the whim of the moment. It's like being in a boat, with nobody steering it! Whichever way the wind blows, that is where you go!
Examples of bad Life-Goals & Life-Rules
often learned without realizing it
Its Up to You
In life, it is best to put yourself in control. When someone says "Lets do such-and-such," the first thing a Self-Making person asks himself is "Does doing such-and-such fit into my Life-Goals and Life-Rules? Does it lead me towards what I want to be, or away from what I want to be? Will I have to break a Life-Rule?
In other words, don't let other people control you. Especially peers who are struggling to grow up, and who likely don't have a good set of Life-Goals and Life-Rules.
You can select what you let into your head. You can block out the bad, and embrace the good. You can think through ideas. You can control whom you become. You can make yourself. Please take the time, and make the effort, to do a good job! Your future depends upon it!
Get out your Life-Goals and Life-Rules papers. These are the
beginning of your road map to your future. True, they don't map out
everything. They are likely general goals and rules. But they will
still help you make decisions. You can add to them, as you grow
older. And the longer you use them, the more they become automatic to
the point where you don't even have to think about them.
Call on a team to tell what they decided.
Call on class by teams to comment. Any other examples of how the choice would help create a good future?
Go to the next team.
Etc.
In either positive or negative situations: "What are you making yourself to be like?"
