Self-Reliance: Warrior Mind Podcast #168

This Warrior Mind Podcast is based on the post “Self Reliance and Personal Success”

The purpose of this Warrior Mind Podcast is to convince you that you and only you are responsible for your personal success, fulfillment and happiness…this is the essence of self-reliance.

Self-reliance is when you can only depend on you to create your personal success. You can only depend on you to do what you need to. This has been true through the centuries and even more so today. You have to be not only pro-active (positive and forthright) but pre-active (seeing what is coming and positioning yourself for it).

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Enjoy This Warrior Mind Podcast On Self-Reliance.

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Self-Reliance is an essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson’s recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson’s most famous quotations: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

Self-Reliance is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s compilation of many years’ works and the archetype for his transcendental philosophies. Emerson presupposes that the mind is initially subject to an unhappy conformism. Throughout the essay he gives a defense for his famous catch-phrase “Trust thyself”. This argument follows three major points: the self-contained genius, the disapproval of the world, and the value of self-worth.

In the first section, Emerson argues that inside of each person is genius. He writes: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.” The remainder of this section is spent exploring this concept. Emerson claims that examples of people who trusted themselves above all else include Moses, Plato, and Milton.

Emerson continues by decrying the effects that society has upon the individual. He says that when people are influenced by society, they will compromise their values in order to retain a foolish character to the world. He states: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” When a man adheres blindly to thoughts or opinions he has vocalized in the past, purely for the sake of seeming true to his principles, Emerson argues that he violates his nature. A man must be willing, every day, to open his consciousness to his intuition, whether or not what it tells him is in conflict with prior conclusions he had come to.

The essay concludes with a discussion of the value of self-worth. Emerson states that “man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say ‘I think,’ ‘I am,’ but quotes some saint or sage.” This section contains arguments which are similar to the modern ideals of self-esteem being based upon a person’s intrinsic character rather than any external party.

Throughout this essay, Emerson argues against conformity with the world. He gives an archetype for his own transcendental beliefs, but also argues for his slogan “trust thyself”. To follow Emerson’s self-reliant credo fully, one must learn to hear and obey what is most true within their heart, and both think and act independent of popular opinion and social pressure.

Here’s a link to the essay from Emerson: Self-Reliance

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