Growing up, my Dad told me that it was bad to lie, and that the worst lie that one could tell is a lie to themselves. In today’s society, we our often taught to lie to ourselves, and to deny ourselves the pursuit of what we truly desire. Young men in particular often have to hide their true desires in order to be “politically correct,” appease feminists, yield to higher authority, or keep their job.
In some cases, it is wise to keep our mouths shut. As much as I’d love to believe that mashing towards one’s goals doggedly, thinking positively, and all of the other stuff read in personal development books will lead to success, many of us have to rely upon or at least lean on jobs to have a stable income. Not all of us are super badasses that can fight twenty ninjas simultaneously, so it is often wise not to run our mouths at people that can hand us a beatdown. In the case of dealing with others, at least others that are not hostiles, “political correctness” can be a form of cordiality.
Indeed, there are times when we cannot go balls-to-the-walls for what we want. Law 38 of Robert Green’s 48 Laws of Power even teaches us not to stand out too much, lest we risk being stamped out. A well-known adage of Northeast Asian cultures states that the nail that sticks out is the one that is hammered, so it does not always pay off to go against the grain too much.
Despite this reality, when we submit completely to others we might as well be slaves. We should always keep our own ideals, aspirations, and plans in mind. A life spent serving others with our labor, and even worse, serving others with mentalities implanted into our minds, is a life not truly worth living, at least in my philosophy.
No matter what we have to deal with in our lives, or what we have to tolerate in order to survive one more day (if it is worth it), we should admit what we want to ourselves. Failure to admit our true desires will result in us never pursuing our actual goals in the ways that they should be. Instead, people that fool themselves into believing that they do not want what they want will spin their wheels, slowly ebbing away as they labor for others, marching towards a destination that is not of their choosing.
The sooner that you learn and internalize this lesson, the better. If you want to learn how to get what you want in life, the first step that you must take is to admit that it is what you really want.