can you think of a single choice that you make where you are not influenced by some role model?
think about it!
whether we acknowledge them or not, and whether we are even aware of them or not, all of us have role models. and the way we think, act, speak and behave is largely influenced by our role models we have chosen for ourselves!
this might be difficult for some of us to swallow. but if you pause to think and ask yourself honestly, we model ourselves on people we look up to. and this basic truth reflects in almost all aspects of our lives - trivial or significant.
why do you choose a particular brand of toothpaste? why do you wear a particular type of dress? why do you read certain books, listen to music, eat in specific restaurants, and do most of the things that you do? why do you color your hair a particular shade, or decide to go bald?
why do you opt for a specific career path? why do you want to marry a certain kind of person? why do you want a particular lifestyle?
why do you want to go where you want to go? and be what you want to be?
in most cases there is a role model who is inspiring us to reach out and go beyond the boundaries drawn out by our own minds. i guess this is why our scripture/teachers/elders exhort us to choose our company well. because my choice of company, to a large extent, determines the quality and direction of my journey!
i'm so glad to be journeying with you :-)
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2 comments:
It is certainly true that all of us are in some way unfluenced by one person or the other with reference to most choices we make in life. But it is not always true that we have exactly role models, the way I understand the term, for the way we dress or the paste we choose lets say.
We as human beings sometimes have what is called a herd mentality and so we simply do a lot of things or don't do a lot of things with no particular reason or influence at all. This is one side.
The other side with reference to our character or habits, yes to a great extent, it is only our attempt to emulate from somebody we look up to or like to follow. It is also interesting to sit back and think about how we tend to get influenced very unconciously or subconciously many times.
But there is one more important issue that has always bothered me or made me wonder rather, and that is, in this journey of emulating or trying to emulate role models, how many times have we experienced pressure situations on ourselves. I would also feel that the root of characteristics such as self-depreication springs out of this tendency to icon(ise) a person in our life whom we would like to follow.
Well at the end of the day I would look at it as a chain process where we play it forward as well, by being influenced and inturn influencing many people around us. So this is an inevitable ring which we can't break even if we so desire and so role models, our influence and the attempt to emulate them is here to be.
Aparna
Most thinking, feeling human beings who are simultaneously conscious of their surroundings can see through their decision-making process at all levels. They are aware when they followed a role model in one case but did not in another. And there is always a reasoning involved. Just like you... and just like all those who introspect and analyze... and sometimes over-analyze too (like me) Yes, life is all about the choices we make. Period.
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