One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to turn your assets into liabilities. This happens in many ways, such as when a wealthy person becomes bound by his fear of loss, or when a person of advancing age curses his years rather than celebrating his maturity. One of the most devastating forms of this disease, however, manifests when a person becomes subject to rather than master of his greatest internal assets, namely, his thoughts and feelings.
Ask most people, especially those raised under the American ideal, if they are individuals and they will answer strongly in the affirmative. Examine their thoughts, actions and tendencies, however, and a picture of conformity, uniformity if not homogeneity emerges on the canvas of their lives.
Individuality rests on two principles: the first, original thought and the second, self-directed action. True individuality is the expression of your inner greatness. It is the manifestation in form of your highest and finest self in relation to the circumstances at hand. You needn’t wait for the perfect arrangement of circumstance, for there is a perfect expression in relation to any circumstance, however configured.
Individual living requires that you be true to yourself. If you are true to yourself then you can be true with others beyond yourself.
“The supreme courage of life is the courage of the soul. It is living, day by day, sincerely, steadfastly, serenely,—despite all opinions, all obstacles, all opposition. It means the wine of inspiration for ourselves and others that comes from the crushed grapes of our sorrows. This courage makes the simplest life, great; it makes the greatest life—sublime. It means the royal dignity of fine individual living.
Every man reigns a king over the kingdom of—self. He wears the crown of individuality that no hands but his own can ever remove. He should not only reign, but—rule. His individuality is his true self, his best self, his highest self, his self victorious. His thoughts, his words, his acts, his feelings, his aims and his powers are his—subjects. With gentle, firm strength he must command them or, they will finally take from his feeble fingers the reins of government and rule in his stead. Man must first be true to himself or he will be false to all the world.” ~ William George Jordan, “The Crown of Individuality”
Gregory Hake 
This post brings to mind the statement made in biblical writing, ” my fathers house has many mansions”.Each of us are blessed with a mansion as long as we are alive, our ability to express ourselves in this world, a true gift. This gift is so easily sqandered as we toss our crowns down into the often turbulent and ever changing tides of emotion. I find it takes much more courage to lord over my feelings and reign over my expression than it does to be subject to them. What an amazing world we would see when true individuality becomes the norm, greatness at every turn. In the quest for fitnes and weight management , the best advice given is always, “make your decisions based on your goals, not your feelings, as feelings are ever changing and not always accurate, thus causing life to become a rollercoaster ride, many times taking you away from your goals”. Thanks for teaming up with Jordan and using your individuality to highlight his thoughts. Great post to consider daily.
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Really amazing, thank you!
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Love your blog. Blog with integrity is the gold standard of the bsphere. Glad to see you support it. Thanks.
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“Unto thine own self be true”
Humbling words that require specific action that only we can do ourselves.
Facing the “hard Truths” requires that one take action in patience and allow things to come right to point.
Ruthless with ourselves and patient with others, as the process has been with each of us, and thank God for that!
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Often individuality is seen as little more than license to exhibit selfish or quirky tendancies. I appreciate the light you and Mr Jordan have shed on the subject and on the familiar words ” To thine own self be true….”. We are each responsible to wisely and consistently govern our own thoughts, feelings, words, actions and aspirations and in so doing revealing and being true to our own and unique innner greatness. This makes sense!
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To experience individual value there must be a measure of rulership. The alternative is slavery – something men and women struggle more or less constantly to avoid. But while rulership may extend to physical things in an obvious way, the essence of it is not external but internal. Whether one lives as a ruler or a slave is not determined by others, or by the changing environment. One can be in the most restrictive imaginable circumstance and still be an absolute ruler, master over one’s own internal state, or one can be in position to impose authority on others and still be a slave. Often, in fact, the tools for ultimate leadership in the world are forged in intensely restrictive situations. A good thing to remember when feeling confined!
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What a logical approach to understanding our most important responsibility, self control, governing our own thoughts, words, acts, feelings, aims and powers. The idea to rule them as our subjects with gentle, firm strength is a brilliant way to describe a responsible adult, equipped to accept more responsiblity. This notion of how to be an individual has been subverted by the weak and desperate to acting out ridiculous extremes or trying to arbitrarily control by the soul trampling manipulation of circumstances through fear. The first requirement to peace and happiness is control of this most itimate aspect of ourselves.
Thanks, this is a great post for this season when we celebrate independence and individuality. This is the key to independence and individual freedom.
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Another bold statement of freedom! Here is perhaps our most prized asset and it can’t ever be taken one from another – our dignity. Sounds great already, but the problem is that it’s so easy to give it it away. And we do give it away in what can seem like good deeds even. From what I gather in your post, anytime we conform to a set of norms – whether familial, cultural, ethnic or religious – we are at risk to lose our most worthy possession – individuality. The norms, if they are to be of any value, have to be internalized and in harmony with the hallmarks of individuality – original thought and self-control. If they are true, they can serve as conditioning agents of education, to guide the individual towards individuality through the mastery of maturity. If they fall short of this, then we cannot learn to think for ourselves and thus do for ourselves. It becomes a cloak rather than a crown.
I am therefore I think and feel; inside out. That’s the opposite of I think/feel therefore I am; subjection to external impressions. Of course we receive outside impressions, but they are not meant to rule. So many practical implications in our daily living hang on this very idea.
Thanks for keeping it real!!!
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You do hear a lot about individuality in the American ethos, but I think it is easily seen through Jordan’s quote what has been missing from the equation. Yes, we have the ability to do what we want. Yet he likens our individuality to that of a ruler. A ruler has a responsibility to those that he rules. We have a responsibility to govern ourselves in a way that we have fine individual living. Not only in what comes to us, but especially in what we provide for others. Our inner greatness cannot be expressed only for our own individual benefit. If we only live for ourselves, there will simply not be enough space to do all the things that are necessary to live the right way. We quickly lose perspective, and allow what should be our subjects (our thoughts, feelings, actions, etc.) to be our rulers.
If you are to rule yourself, you must care for more than yourself, and be able to see your individuality in terms of a community of individuals.
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Brilliant!
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