Choosing Self-Dominion
Living at the Point of My Own Determination
(A project of New Thought Network
and the objective of The Politics of Success^®)

We are constantly challenged to be ourselves
in a world that expects us to be like everyone else.
Only as a critical mass of us chooses self-dominion
may humankind's possibilities be realized.
This website celebrates the emergence of this critical mass:
Those who take charge of their own consequences
by claiming their unique vocations of destiny.

Companion sites:
The Politics of Success^®
CeleNet
The Mind of Science

You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny
--The Upanishads, As Translated by Eknath Easwaran

Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
--Judy Garland

I can choose one of two ways of being in the world:

• The way of self-dominion

• The way of self-diminishment

The way I choose is reflected in my vocation:

There are two ways these days
to generate my livelihood.

The conventional way
is to look at all the slots designed by others
(also known as "jobs"),
and choosing one of these,
to walk the labyrinth of accommodations
that eventually shapes me into it.

This is the way of those who are content
to have their livelihood sustain
whatever else of their life remains.

The unconventional way
is to look into myself,
to nurture what I find most worthy there
and to grow it into some of the unfilled space
that others have not pre-destined.

Life has always ample room for one more space.
And since all spaces represent the trace of some event,
why not begin to fill a space
evented by no one's occupation save my own?

This is the way of those who are not content
until their livelihood and life are one.

A life without cause
is a life without effect.
--Dildano

The way of self-dominion is the path of choosing to be truly who I am:

I am here to be of consequence,
to be more than my parents' child,
mere outcome of the latest in a series of matings
between persons almost all of whom I never knew,
and none of whom I can ever know
as well as I already know myself.

I am here to be of consequence,
to be more than a reaction or response
to other people and institutions
whose self-appointed or established purpose
is to shape, direct, instruct or otherwise conform me
to a pre-existing set of expectations.

I am here to be of consequence,
to be more than an extension
of prevailing trends and fashions,
of teachings, preachments and ideologies,
of wisdom handed down,
of reasons handed over,
of meanings that last only for a season.

I am here to be of consequence,
to be more than the caretaker
of the things that I possess,
the thoughts that I profess,
and the feelings that I express.

More than all of these,
I am here to be my own consequence,
to be all that became possible
when the universe chose to be itself
as me.

He not busy being born
Is busy dying.
--Bob Dylan

The way of self-diminishment, in stark contrast to the above, is the path of conforming my life to the expectations of others - parents, teachers, bosses, spouses, peers, neighbors, society at large, etc.

When I choose self-diminishment, whatever is originally and uniquely me fails to be expressed.  Something within me dies before my body does:

There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you...and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and will be lost.  It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.  You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.  You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that activate you.

KEEP THE CHANNEL OPEN! 
--Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille, Dance to the Pipers

When I choose to constrict or close my channel, I am much busier with dying than I am with being born.  This is inevitable, for of what further use to my soul is a body that is not allowed to express the purpose for which my soul incarnated?

If you asked me what I came into this world to do,
I will tell you:
I CAME TO LIVE OUT LOUD.
--Emile Zola

The way of self-dominion is a choice that only I can generate. 

The way of self-diminishment is invariably a borrowed, imitated, or otherwise appropriated choice. 

I am always at the point of my own determination, even when I appropriate choices that others have made for me, for mine is the only brain that directs my body's course.

Yet only as I live according to my own consciously self-generated choices - some of which may be ones that others would also have me make - is self-dominion the foundation of my life experience.

Only those who will risk going too far
can possibly find out how far one can go.
--T.S. Eliot

In the face of these contrasting alternatives, I dedicate this website to all who are committed to being their own consequence by choosing the way of self-dominion and claiming their vocation of destiny.

Noel Frederick McInnis

NOTE: The choice of self-dominion is now facilitated by the Master Mind motivation process.  See the web pages for The Politics of Success^®

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[ Celebrations of Self-Dominion | Songs of Self-Dominion | Stories of Self-Dominion ]

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