“To be free, you must be self-determined, which is to say that you must be able to control your own destiny in your own interests.”
-Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

According to the Self-Determination Theory, a crucial aspect of motivation and thriving is autonomy. The more independence and ownership you take for yourself, your circumstances, and your life, the more self-determined you will be. Being self-determined means that you’ve made yourself the reference point, rather than measuring yourself against something external. Being self-determined means that you’ve decided what success means to you, and you don’t need anyone else’s permission for what you want for yourself. You don’t need to apologize for what you want.

Becoming self-determined is very difficult in today’s world. The noise and distractions are relentless, making it nearly impossible to truly make yourself your own reference point, and to have an internal compass.

Welcome to the new world – we now have technology that is literally designed to addict and control us. Social media is largely built to exactly do that. It’s designed to create unhealthy needs around being accepted and liked.  Indeed, research has shown that social media and FOMO go hand-in-hand. FOMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. People are trained to constantly “need” to know how and what others are doing, and to have others know what they are doing. This is a very destructive form of living.

Social media is specifically designed to subconsciously manipulate people’s identity, their desires, and their behaviors. Put more directly, social media is designed to stop people from becoming self-determined.
-Excerpts from The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
-Stephen R. Covey

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”
-Tommy Lasorda

…and as Zig Ziglar stated, “Your input determines your outlook. Your outlook determines your output, and your output determines your future.”