I don’t know about you, but I was trained to follow instructions, be obedient and to never challenge adults.
To be an ‘excellent’ student I was taught to NEVER question my teachers.
I was always expected to meet a pre-established standard to become like the ‘perfect’ machine.
My performance was always tested and like a machine, anything under the standardized guidelines I was considered an ‘under performer.’
All my efforts were focused on following instructions and obeying grownups.
The price of NOT fitting-into these pre-set guidelines were painful; full of judgement and social pressures.
Meeting these benchmarks would ultimately impact my future opportunities such as eligibility for jobs or college.
Fitting-in, became a form of currency, it would open or close doors to my future.
This is the power of indoctrination:
- Most of us were told what to think, NOT how to think.
- Most of us were trained to follow, NOT how to lead.
Finding our passion demands FREEDOM!
Now, for me, after years of this mental and emotional manipulation, finding my passion has been an arduous intellectual and emotional battle.
- I needed first to find freedom of judgment.
- I needed to find freedom of my need to fit-in socially in order to embrace my uniqueness.
- I needed to find freedom from my fears of failure.
- I needed freedom to own my thoughts, instead of searching for external validation.
So, how to find our passion?
Find freedom from indoctrination and passion will find you.
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Originally published at Quora.com