SOCIAL & SELF-OPPRESSION

by Brendon Burchard

 

 

"When others make us feel insignificant, powerless, or unworthy, this is an effect of oppression.

 

We can recall situations when we compromised who we were to avoid conflict.  We gave away pieces of our integrity in order to get along with others.  We started acting like "them" in school or at the office.  We faked it, put on a smile, walked the path we were told to.  We did all we could to avoid the silence of ostracism or the sting of their judgment.  We hoped above all, to be secure, to be accepted, to belong.

 

Social oppression is at work when the ways of others diminish who we are or stop us from pursuing our own goals.  The sense of security people get from conformity cannot be understated; it is one of the great enemies of Personal Freedom.  If we follow in pre-ordained paths what others are doing, then we can get signals that we are on track and that we will likely be accepted.  But what if we chase all that and believe all that, and then one day awake to find those things aren't what matter most?

 

To ask such a question, to rattle the cage of conformity, is to invite real risk into our lives.  If we had total freedom in life, what exactly would we do, where would we go, how would we behave day-to-day, and what would give us meaning?

 

How many people have given up their dreams in order to follow a more secure and profitable and socially accepted path?  The aims of others can become our aims if we are not vigilant.  Their certitude can replace our quest for something new.  Their collective meaning can subjugate our search for our individual meaning.  Yes, let us be wary.  We can quickly lose ourselves in others and in our culture.  We become not free and genuine humans, but rather slaves to opinion.

 

This the ultimate misery:  living a life that is not our own.

 

SELF-OPPRESSIONS

 

Unfortunately, most oppression comes not from others but from a source we least suspect:  ourselves.

 

Self-oppression is the condition of letting our own negative thoughts and actions restrict us.  None of us wants to be the cause of our own failure in life -- yet most often we are. 

 

Freedom requires responsibility to choose who we are above and beyond our immediate impulses, need, and social pressures, so that we can genuinely express the type of person we want to be, live the life we truly want to live, leave the legacy we desire.

 

If we are not free to choose our character and conduct and legacy, then we are controlled by something else -- thus we are lacking freedom.  And if we are not responsible for our beliefs and behaviors, then someone or something else is -- thus, again, we are slaves.  And so the great demand is clear:

 

We must be conscious and responsible

for our beliefs and behaviours

if we are ever to be free!

 

Just as freedom does not mean the release of responsibility, it also does not necessarily mean the absence of struggle.  Personal Freedom is more than just being free from pain -- it is about being free to live, to truly enjoy and expand in life.  It is not merely freedom from bad things that limit us, but freedom to experience good things that awaken us."

 

If you identify with anything that is being said, and you want to take control of your life, but you don't know where to start, then I encourage you to contact me here so that we can talk about how our Mentorship and Coaching Program can help you acheive Personal & Economic Freedom.