Self Importance, A Commentary

“You are absolutely free when you are not consumed with your self importance. You are free when you no longer stroked, coddled and approved of by everyone; you are no longer offended by the actions of others.” – Wayne Dyer

This offers an interesting opportunity to ponder how you would evaluate yourself from this perspective. I don’t think this statement means to not consider that you are an important part of the world community. To me, self importance means, considering myself more important than others, that “no one compares to me” or “you are not as important as I am” type of thinking. I do think that each one of us is very valuable, that we are here to contribute to the betterment of the world in our own important way.

From my perspective, I agree that we are free and have true confidence when we don’t need the approval of others or to be stroked / coddled in a way of over importance. When we go about our work in the world to make the world a better place, creating no harm to others, doing the best job that we can, given our daily circumstances, all we really need is our own satisfaction of a job well done. If others compliment or congratulate us on the job we have done, we must remind ourselves to simply say, “Thank you.”

My thought about, “you will no longer be offended by the actions of others,” is that this is sometimes very hard to do. To not take the negative actions or words toward us in a personal manner is a difficult thing to do. People are responsible for their own actions and words; no one else can be. Many times they try to make us responsible, but when we remember that those actions / words have nothing to do with us, it is only a projection of where they are in life at this moment, then we cannot be responsible for their words / actions and it is in our best interest not to take them personally. We might have said something that triggered their action or their words, but we are not “the cause.” When we truly remember this, then we can really be free of the thought that we might be the cause of someone else’s behavior. We will also know that we are totally responsible for our own words and actions, thus freeing ourselves of needing to latch on to others to blame.

What are your thoughts on this phrase and my commentary? I would love to hear from you.