Even in a Fortune Cookie ....

What do you care so much what other people think? Care about what you think.

Are other people supposed to tame you? Are they supposed to shape you into something you are not? Just exactly what is wrong with your thinking as you think, feeling as you feel, seeing as you see, being as you are? Why do you so often look to a higher authority?

You can understand yourself more by bouncing off other people, yet other people are not the standard for you to go by nor do other people have dominion over you. What makes you think others know more than you to the extent that you give them authority for your decision-making? What makes you think so many have authority over you?

You know I do not mean to say that you always know best, for We both know by now that you don’t. You have held on to ideas of yours for no reason but that they are yours and you hold them sacrosanct as if they were your vital organs and you couldn’t live without them. There are many ideas you would have done well to throw away long ago that you are still holding onto, yet when it comes to some areas, you give yourself over to others or any one at all, as if they have a power over you that you do not. In certain areas, you consult with friends or magazines or television before you listen to yourself.

You give yourself away. Beloveds, in some cases, you might just as well toss a coin as you in some cases listen to those you listen to, and then there are those people you just about never listen to. Are you aware of this? Be a little wary of those who always seem to agree with you. Do not be so quick to listen to them. They may not further your understanding.

There is a tendency in some countries to disregard what your parents say. Wherever you live, whatever your culture, I suggest you listen to your parents. Listening doesn’t mean obeying. It means listening with the possibility in mind that you are being offered gold. What if your mother and father could be right and you and everyone else you know are mistaken?

Whatever your age, start to listen to what others say without adamantly rejecting what is said in certain quarters or adamantly accepting what is said in certain quarters. This is perhaps a new slant for you, to consider what is being said rather than your regard for the person who is saying it.

You can think in more than one way. You can change direction. Odds are you will do well to sort through your old thinking. Listening is a way to do this.

If I say it, you can believe it. You can believe it across the board.

Even in a fortune cookie, you may receive good advice although you laugh at it in the moment.

Even on a billboard, you could see a slogan that opens a new vein of thinking for you.

Surely you are not to keep on thinking as you always have. Surely you are not to adapt to everyone else’s way of thinking either. Surely you are the decider. Consider that you may know what you are doing, and consider that you may not. Going by what you feel is not always the same as going by your heart. Sometimes you are going by ego rather than your heart, for sometimes ego seems virtuous to you. Of course, you do not always go by ego; nevertheless, you can go by ego less.