Useless Head: am I Delusional?
According to Google (whatever I got from the search engine), Delusion
an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder.
Recently, I have got to know a type of delusion known as Grandiose Delusion. In fact, delusions of grandeur turned out to be one of the more common ones. It’s when you believe that you have more power, wealth, smarts, or other grand traits than is true.
People suffering from grandiose delusions wrongly hold themselves at an extraordinarily high status in their minds. Taken from wikipedia.
Have you ever doubted whether you’re being delusional or you are really in a possession of everything to achieve whatever you desire? After reading different perspectives regarding the kind of thoughts and words we let pass through our heads, sometimes I think I am delusional and there’s a lot to grind and work on until I can achieve at least one of my big goals.
Another thing, however, is the concept of autosuggestion. According to Google:
the hypnotic or subconscious adoption of an idea that one has originated oneself, e.g. through repetition of verbal statements to oneself in order to change behavior.
The author of ‘Think and Grow Rich’, Napoleon Hill, proposes that one should think that he/she is already in possession of the wealth needed to attain your Higher Purpose. Everything in our universe was created by only two things: energy and matter. Meanwhile, the energy required to transform our deepest desires into their physical equivalents are accessible in the form of thoughts, Thus, it is our responsibility to feed our mind with positive thoughts, wrapped by emotions and faith. Before we can accumulate riches in abundance, we must magnetize our minds with an intense desire for riches until it drives us to create definite plans. And autosuggestion is the way of communication with our subconscious minds.
What are the boundaries between being delusional and obsessed? At what point do you become delusional? I thought the difference is in whether you’re taking a definite action towards achieving your goals. But can you be delusional yet take some sort of action?
The book ‘Outliers’, by Malcom Gladwell, suggests that people don’t rise from nothing. Successful people are commonly the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to acquire, learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a huge difference where and when we grew up. Think about it. Think about all the successful people you are inspired by and see what they have in common. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our ancestors shape the patterns of what we attain along the way.
It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.
I don’t know if I am lucky to be where I am from. Neither I know if what Gladwell suggests happens to be true. The only thing that is clear is that it is not always the case. However, there’s something romantic in believing you have everything to achieve your biggest goals and working hard towards them yet you happen to be in the wrong place or have bad circumstances in life. One might say that it is about becoming the best version of yourself as if everything was predetermined. However, fulfilling your potential, whether it is predetermined genetically or not, is still amazing to me. And I believe that’s how I should end this piece. I can be working hard and taking definite actions towards my biggest goals believing it keeps me away from being delusional. In a larger sense, however, I might not have the best circumstances or genetics to be where I want to be, in which case my thoughts become delusions. Anyways, life is a journey and most of it is out of our control, which can be terrifying. There’s one thing we can do, however, and it’s to make simple decisions over and over again. There’s always an option to complain but there’s also another option. It’s the choice to open yourself up to whatever circumstances you have in your life. ‘Amor Fati’ — a love of one’s fate.
