How the Person You Know as Yourself Came to be

How did you become the self you described in Adventure 1?  Did you create that person?  Is your now self the real you?  The answers to these questions will surprise you.

Most likely, the person you described in Adventure 1 was largely shaped by the influential people from your childhood.  In other words, your now self was probably created by others, not by your self.

Who created your now self?  Here’s a partial list:  Parents.  Grandparents.  Guardians.  Siblings.  Teachers.  Clergy.  Friends.  Neighbors.  Government.  Society.  The Arts and advertising.

How did others create the person you know as your self?  They convinced you to accept their beliefs about your self, others, and the world.  They defined reality for you, and you accepted their definition.  They accomplished this in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways.  By example.  By repeated suggestion.  By lecturing and preaching.  With rewards and punishments.  By censoring and shaping your experiences.  By using fear and guilt to mold you into the person they wanted you to become.  And even the most rebellious among you were not immune.

Why did they force their beliefs on you?  It wasn’t because they are bad people.  Chances are, for better or worse, they were convinced that their personal beliefs about how life “works” were facts of life.  They considered it their responsibility to pass these “facts” on to you.  If they were guilty of anything, it was ignorance: an ignorance passed on from one generation to another.

Simply stated, most people don’t know the difference between their personal beliefs about life and the incontestable facts of life.

Because you’re interested in Re-Creating Your Self, many of the beliefs you have accepted are not contributing to your health, happiness, and well-being.  Some of the people to whom you turned for the facts of life were incapable of successfully charting their own lives, much less yours.

Making matters worse, you were born into a world that values “sameness,” when it should be encouraging individuality.  Standardization stunts personal growth and creativity, trying to fit “the norm” is abnormal.  It can cause frustration, depression, and self-alienation.  Sameness is unnatural because nature doesn’t permit standardization:  No two trees are exactly alike; no two blades of grass are the same.  Even “identical” twins are not truly identical.