Trust Your Own Thinking
There are no "shoulds" in the universe. Contrary to everything that has been beaten into you, there are no shoulds, there are no supposed-to's, there are no requirements in the universe. The only guide that's any good at all to you is your own thinking. If it's hassled up with patterns, it's still the only guide for you.
If I could say one thing to the RC Community as the spaceship is about to lift off, if I could shout only one message back to all of you, it would be:
TRUST YOUR OWN THINKING. TRUST YOUR OWN THINKING. TRUST YOUR OWN THINKING. IT'S GOOD THINKING.
Sure, you have reason to suspect that patterns are still running around in it. So what? It's your thinking. Trust your thinking. It's the only thinking that's any good for you. Other people's thinking can be good information for you, but it can't replace your thinking. Your thinking is good. Depend on your own thinking. This is your only guide to what you would like to do, what your best judgment is; not anybody's shoulds, or society's rules, or anything of the sort.
You'll make some mistakes, of course, if you trust your own thinking; but if you make the mistake while trusting your own thinking, you'll be alert to the fact that the results aren't working and you'll correct it quickly.
If you've bought into a "should" or into relying on somebody else's thinking, you've already stopped thinking. You've shut down your own thinking in order to take somebody else's judgment. Then, if you make a mistake (and usually there will be at least a little mistake), you won't notice that things are going wrong. You'll get in deep.
If you trust your own thinking and make a mistake, you'll correct it quickly.
Increasingly, of course, you'll have confidence, as you find out your thinking is brilliant.
Trust your own thinking. Let it be your guide. Run your own life. Trust your own thinking and it will work out fine.
Harvey Jackins
(From a talk given October 8, 1981, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA.
Excerpts appear in Present Time No. 48.)