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that evoke sentiments on how one can lead a fulfilling and even happy life. Concisely, the author
advocates people to nurture self-reliance if they are to live a meaningful and purposively life.
Accordingly, people should desist from pursuing blindly the paths of others. Instead, they should
always trust and follow their instincts and make personal choices. Self-reliance is the source of
optimism and hope and pillar of productive, efficient, and self-sustaining society, while imitation
is death of an individual. In asserting his message, Ralph Emerson uses pathos, logo and ethos,
which he underscores using sentimental quotes. One of his notable quotes is, “What must I do, is
all that concerns me, not what the people think” (Emmerson 5). Reflecting upon this quote and
relating to the personal life, I argue that it is a self-validating slogan and a recipe to a happy and
fulfilling life that will cushion one stress caused by societal pressure and foster creativity for
The quote is presented as an emphasis on the need for individuals to shun from counting
on approval from the society in their pursuit of personal life goals. Essentially, the author can be
inferred to be acknowledging that a society can have adverse effects on individual growth. The
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only countermeasure to this adverse effect is self-sufficiency, which accords an individual the
freedom to discover the self and work towards attaining independence (Emmerson 3).
Accordingly, the author can be seen to urge the followers to nurture a habit of following
individual and desist from conforming to social expectations. People should also follow their
own voices instead of clinging to those of the intermediaries such as the church. Moreover, every
person should also be honest with their relationships, develop own culture, and be concerned
about personal progress instead of social progress. The end goal of self-reliance is, in this case, a
productive, efficient, and self-sustaining society. Thus, one of the fascinating questions to ask
begin with, the effect of evaluating and pursuing individual goals in the lenses of the society is
costly and robs people of self-consciousness, causing them suffering that is otherwise
preventable. The suffering is largely a psychological problem characterized by fears, worries and
emotions resulting from the inability to fulfill societal expectations. Therefore, if people can
learn to understand and acknowledge that suffering is caused by impermanent problems resulting
from inability to fulfill societal expectations that can be ignored, then they will be able to live a
happy and fulfilling life. However, this begins with nurturing self-reliance and differentiating
Indeed, I have once been a victim of lack of self-reliance, something that caused me to
make blunders. For instance, I used to think that the only source of happiness is wealth. I would
go by the society, cherishing capitalist ideals such as loving money, big cars, houses and
diamonds. I also used to think that there were certain social standards that people should observe.
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I would struggle to conform to the standards and ideals of society and stress myself. However, I
came to realize that such views were merely socially constructed and were limiting me and
making me a fool. There more I realized that life is how an individual makes it, the more I
realize that most of the things that the society has created are vanity. I find that nurturing self-
In one way, it is a source of creativity and a solution to many personal problems. The
principle of the self-reliance teaches people to strive towards making the informed rational
choices. These rational choices are expected to optimize happiness and lead to pleasurable
towards reconciling their feelings with their soul, including nurturing positive feelings and
image, while shunning distress and greed with the reference to the ways of the world. Such
mindfulness encourages one to be conscious of the self and undertake the course of actions that
It then also follows that self-reliance is a source is a source of right view. One will see
that the right views encourage individuals to nurture a positive perspective on life and
circumstances. For instance, it discourages one from being pessimistic just because other people
are. Moreover, it gives accords the people the liberty to approach world issues with creativity
and flexibility, attesting to the fact that the solution to common world problems can be resolved
at an individual level. Therefore, one can consider it as a recipe for the right course of thinking
and acting, too. This right view is expected to make one to lead a fulfilling life because it
minimizes the problems associated with the wrong perception that the society creates. After all,
every person is unique, meaning that the needs and abilities of every individual should not be
Indeed, society has been able to progress because some individuals came up with original
ideas. To do so, they had to move away from imitating and following what common views and
thinking of the society. The author acknowledges the paths followed by philosophers such as
Plato and eminent artists. In the same way, self-reliance is expected to break the York of mental
slavery and give people the liberty to be creative in resolving problems. Thus, I have come to
subscribes to the ideology that living a happy and fulfilling life is essentially a personal choice
and that happiness can only be sought within once soul. In this regard, I would recommend that
positive psychology should borrow self-reliance teachings to enhance the viability of its practices
from an interdisciplinary practice perspective. By using this principle, psychology is best placed
to help people manage problems such as stress that people fall into because of worrying about
unfulfilled social expectations that are otherwise transient in nature and do not mean much for
life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Emerson’s quote is a self-validating slogan and a recipe for a happy and
fulfilling life that will cushion one stress resulting societal pressure and encourage creativity and
originality in solving personal problems. The quote encourages people to desist from pursuing
blindly the paths of others. Instead, they should always trust and follow their instincts and make
personal choices. Self-reliance is the source of optimism and hope and pillar of productive,
efficient, and self-sustaining society, while imitation is the death of an individual. Indeed, lack of
self-reliance robs people of creativity and makes people mental slaves who cannot respond to
personal problems. Indeed, since every person is unique, the only way to realize individual
Works Cited
2018.<https://math.dartmouth.edu/~doyle/docs/self/self.pdf>
Livni, Ephrat. Don’t be afraid to create: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s life-changing advice on trusting
your instincts. January 22, 2017. Web. 6th December, 2018. <
https://qz.com/890636/ralph-waldo-emersons-essay-on-self-reliance-has-an-important-
message-about-creativity>