Self-Reliance

“What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what other people think.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ones own thoughts are hard to understand, normally our own thoughts are crowded and mixed up by others. Other people in our life influence us in many ways, especially in our thinking. Your thought is manipulated daily, through school, the media, people around us change how we think. Yes, it is important to understand everyone else but it is pointless to understand everyone else when one does not understand themselves.
If one understands the thoughts of others it is pointless if they do not realize what they gain. They must gain something or else there thoughts are wasted. The ability gained is the ability to separate others thought's to ones own thoughts. Once you have the ability one is able to see clearly the difference between what one believes and what others believe.
For one to be in touch with themselves they must first ignore society and see whats inside. No one is able to get in touch with there inner self if they are worrying about what other people are thinking about. It is necessary to exclude what others think about you, those thoughts are irrelevant to your persona. What others think should not have an affect on our life, we should be able to live our own life based on our thought and that alone. Our life is based only on what we think it is, only our thoughts and actions affect our lives. Once we are able to realize that we control our life and that no one else can affect it, then we have control over it.