In order to be successful, in order to fulfill your potential, in order to be your very own authentic self, you must be able to think for yourself.

I don’t mean “think for yourself” in the sense that you make small simple rational decisions based on your present moment.

• Choosing your meals
• Choosing a book or movie
• Choosing your daily activities

Yes, you must be intentional with these choices. You obviously make these choices based on what suits you and your intention.

But, when I mean you must have the ability to think for yourself I mean it in a broad sense.

You must develop the ability to think for yourself in the sense that goes beyond your present moment. In the sense that gives you an authentic sense of self.

• Form your own opinions
• Form your own beliefs
• Form your own values

Since the moment we were born, we’ve been constantly receiving datapoints from the external world.

Datapoints that have served us in our lives to grow and thrive as human beings based on our environment at that point in time.

Now in the modern world, the proliferation of technology has given us the ability to seamlessly socialize and share information with each other in multiple ways.

• We have social media.
• We have TV news.
• We have books.
• We have podcasts.
• We have text messaging.

And even countless more.

We’re more connected with each other than we have ever been in the history of humanity.

The increased accesss of information and socialization through technology has made it extremely easy for any individual person to receive information from the external world.

Therefore, it has become extremely easy to learn and absorb information from other humans.

While all this can be a very good thing (if used correctly), this has also led to some negative consequences.

For many the increased access to media has led to oversocialization and overconsumption of information.

And if not careful, the oversocialization and overconsumption of information can lead to

• Groupthink/Mimetic thinking

As human beings, we tend to follow what most people are doing because what others do is most likely the path of certainty.

Following others automatically leads to less independent thinking.

The less independent thought we have, the more we’ll succumb to mimetics, following what other people do without question. Which then leads to even less independent thought. It’s a downward spiral.

And currently, the general environment in modern day society isn’t geared for an individual to be successful.

We’re surrounded by distractions left and right. TikTok, Instagram, and other forms of media constantly provide information that is redundant to any of us if we want to reach our full potential.

There is also a big part of society that isn’t working to be the best they can be.

A majority of people we interact with

1. Are not aware of what lies beyond their current state and what they can achieve.
2. Are not willing to leave their current state of being and are too satisfied with what they have.
3. Don’t think big

Being constantly surrounded and immersed in the modern day environment without sufficient time to be alone, intentionally reflect, and process what’s happening around you will just leave you in an echo chamber in which you aren’t exposed to new ideas that could potentially benefit you and your future self.

You can’t really be yourself.
Instead you’re a reflection of others.

Through social media, you’re within an echo chamber in which you’re only exposed to beliefs that mimic your own (algorithms, who you follow, content filters).

Through who you socialize with, you can be influenced through peer pressure leading you to make decisions that can restrict you from new and potentially valuable experiences.

This quote specifically refers to your social group, but in reality it isn’t the people themselves that you hang out with that influence who you are.

It’s about the information you consume and then how you internalize that information for yourself.

The world’s greatest thinkers, leaders, innovators all have or have had a heightened sense of cognitive autonomy (The ability to think for oneself).

This granted them the ability to create disruptive ideas that changed a major part of our world.

Galileo Galilei opposed the catholic church’s belief of geocentricism, the idea that earth was the center of our solar system. He proposed heliocentrism, the idea that the sun was at the center of our solar system. He stuck to his beliefs despite persecution from the catholic church. He turnt out to be correct which drastically changed our understanding of the universe.

Charles Darwin proposed revolutionary ideas on the theory of evolution. He contradicted the widespread view of creationism (the idea that species were fixed and unchanging) with his theory of evolution (darwinism) in which species change to thrive in their environment. He would receive heavy backlash from religious institutions, scientists, and the general population but just like Galileo, he would hold strong to his beliefs. He published his work which changed the way we view evolution and life as we know it.

They both exemplified high levels of cognitive autonomy and were able to produce revolutionary ideas that changed our world and how we view it.

What they and other great thinkers did is they educated themselves with information that was conducive to their interests and put logical nuanced thinking to that information to create their own ideas.

The lack of cognitive autonomy in people living in modern society is what takes away the potential for unique ideas like those to surface.

The issue is overconsumption of information without putting it to use.

The issue is overconsumption of redundant information leading to mimetic thinking which then diverts our individual selves from reaching heights we’ve never deemed to be possible.

And a huge part of it is because a lot of us just aren’t aware yet. Myself included.

If we aren’t aware of what lies 1 step beyond our current state of being, then we won’t be as fully aware of what lies 2 steps beyond our current state of being.

So if we continue to immerse ourselves in an echo chamber of socialization and consumption without giving ourselves the chance to fully rationalize and think for ourselves, we’ll never be fully aware of what we’re truly capable of doing.

And even further, we won’t be able to truly be our authentic selves.

Constantly consuming ideas of others. Constantly acting on the ideas of others. No space to make choices that are truly based on your own ideas and values.

It’s the opposite of being authentic. It’s being completely mimetic. Extinguishing creativity, which is an essential prequisite to innovation.

Now, with all this talk of thinking for yourself, I don’t mean automatically discard the ideas of others or shut off your mind to the world around you.

To thrive, we need each other.
We can’t be alone all the time.
We need each other to test our ideas and to gather information.
We are social creatures.
We learn from each other.
We learn what to do. We learn what not to do.

It’s about consuming the correct information and then filtering it all out for ourselves.
Putting our own nuance to ideas based on your beliefs, values, or acquired knowledge.

It’s this type of thinking that can yield us the potential of becoming the greatest version of ourselves.

Embrace Moments of Solitude

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So to heighten cognitive autonomy we must liberate ourselves from external conditioning.

We must first free ourselves from

1. Groupthink
2. The “limiting” beliefs of others
3. Opinions of others

Instead of constantly living under what we consume, learn to live above what you consume.

Each day we have moments in which we have opportunities to be alone.

Instead of seeking something to distract yourself with, instead of reaching for your phone, instead of watching TV, instead of seeking another source of stimulation just think.

Practice being alone with your thoughts.
Try going on a 20 minute walk alone.
No distractions whatsoever.

Then reflect

• On your purpose
• On what you value
• On who you identify as

Then go even deeper and ask yourself

• Why do I value what I value?
• Who do I truly want to become?
• Why do I identify as what I identify as?
• Is my purpose something I deeply resonate with?
• Am I fulfilled with how I am living? If not then what will fulfill me?

Truly finding who you are, what you value, who you want to become will take time.

It can depend on the level of influence the external world has on you and how you’ve reacted to those influences.

If you’ve been making most of your decisions based on external influences rather than what you intrinsically value, it can take time to find what you truly want. And what you truly want can change over time.

You must experiment. Observe the world around you. Observe yourself. Continuously reflect.

Once you have a general idea of what you value, who you want to become, your purpose, and a vision for your life you now have an internal compass. A compass that points towards your authentic self.

So what do you do with this compass? You use it as a guide keeping you in alignment with your authentic self and what you value.

As you live your life, you don’t mindlessly follow what everyone else is doing.

You don’t mindlessly consume information.

You follow that compass.

You begin to question.

• Will making these decisions ultimately be beneficial for me?

You begin to filter out what you consume. Discarding what is useless. Keeping what is useful.

The more and more you continue to follow your authentic self, the more you experiment with yourself and the world around you, the more calibrated that compass will become.

You will begin to hone in on a specific path you want to follow.

Cognitive autonomy doesn’t come from what you learn but rather how you use and experiment with what you’ve learnt.

As you experiment and learn, you’ll form your own views, conclusions, opinions, and beliefs.

The more aware we become of who we truly are, the more aware we’ll become of the possibilities that surround our authentic selves.

So then with that awareness we continue to make choices based on what we truly want out of life.

Yet, we can’t expect this to be a 1 time process.

Expect nothing to stick at first. Expect to experiment and iterate. It’s part of life’s adventure.

At the end of each day to give yourself time to reflect.

Or even throughout your day.

• Reflect on what you did.
• Reflect on what could’ve gone better.
• Reflect on anything that has stuck in your mind.

Document it. On a notepad. On an online document. Whatever works best for you.

You can gain clarity from this. And with that clarity you can figure out if your actions were conducive towards your ideal future and your authentic self.

Life is generally subjective. We create objective goals that are based upon subjective viewpoints. So take objective action based on your subjective view points.

This is cognitive autonomy. Truly thinking for yourself. You want it. You need it.

Consume with Intention

​
To improve, we need to learn.
To learn we need to consume.
​
We need other people to learn from.
We need outside sources if we want to internalize what is useful for ourselves.

But we don’t want to begin mindlessly consuming redundant information and mindlessly acting on it.

With the information you consume and the experiences you encounter, whether it be from your social group, social media, books, your workplace, or anything else, make a habit of filtering out what is redundant and keeping what is useful. Trim the fat.

With the datapoints that you have gathered, you then make decisions or take action towards what is truly useful.

And as you continue to take action and experiment with those datapoints, you’ll begin to hone in on what you really need.

To make this process easier for yourself, you should prime your environment.

Intentionally choose based on your values and authentic self.

• Who you hang out with
• Who you follow on social media
• Where you get your information from
• What type of information you consume

Begin to cut out sources of information that is opposite and that isn’t conducive to who you want to be.

Begin to find sources of information that is conducive to who you want to be.

You’ll begin to consume information that can be useful and beneficial for yourself. And you begin to put your own nuance to that information finding what is unique and useful to you.

A perfect example of embodying a high degree of cognitive autonomy.
​

Don’t be stagnant

There is no use in learning if you don’t put that knowledge to use.

A lot of people learn and learn and learn.
But they’re missing the final step.
The crucial step.
​
​Action.

Just take action. It’s as simple as that.

A lot of people have the tools they need, they know who they are, they know who they want to become, they have dreams. They are aware.

But they fail to take action.

Cognitive autonomy becomes useless if you don’t do anything with it.
At that point you only bolster your ego without producing tangible results.
Living an illusion of grandeur.

Then people we wonder why we aren’t satisfied in life.
It’s because we haven’t made our ideal life our reality yet.

So make an attempt. Step into uncertainty.
You have a compass that points to your authentic self. Use it.

Make the unknown, known.

Build your life before it’s built for you.

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