<\/em>One of my favorite people to fly with at my \u201cday job\u201d is an Austrian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen. You\u2019d never think he was anything but American, at least until you get into a conversation with him. As Americanized as he is, his European roots are pretty close to the surface and a lot of his opinions are, well, very European.<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s why I enjoy his company. I live with someone who is more American than apple pie and defends even the most outrageous customs and life choices here in this country. I don\u2019t. I grew up in an American trailer park \u2013 four all together, thank you very much \u2013 but my sensibilities definitely lean toward a less independent and more interdependent lifestyle, i.e. European in nature.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I was so taken back with a comment my Austrian-born friend made not long ago that put me in a the class of a \u201ctypical American.\u201d I\u2019m far from \u201ctypical\u201d in my opinion, but that\u2019s another topic not to be discussed at his time. I happen to mention to my friend that I had brought along some \u201cGreek yogurt\u201d with me on our trip. He launched into a tirade about how gullible Americans are. \u201cOh, it\u2019s the next big thing and it\u2019s no different than any other yogurt, but the advertisers say it\u2019s better so you Americans have to run out and buy it. Europeans would never be misled that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Wow\u2026and I only bought it because it was on sale! Okay, not completely, I mean I think it IS creamer, but I digress. It got me to thinking. We Americans pride ourselves on our independence and independent thinking, but we ARE lulled (not so subtly) into buying things just because it\u2019s the next \u201cthing\u201d to have. Contrast that with the interdependence that Europeans experience with each other, perhaps because of the close proximity of so many different countries, yet they don\u2019t seem to be as easily swayed. How can that be?<\/p>\n They might not, actually. I\u2019m sure that you could be reading this thinking just the opposite is true about Europeans and Americans, and have all kinds of evidence to prove your point. It really doesn\u2019t matter. What I got out of this discussion \u2013 and the subsequent pondering I\u2019ve been doing on the subject over the past few weeks \u2013 is that we aren\u2019t going to please everybody no matter what we decide!<\/p>\n Just because a product or way of doing something is supposedly the thing to have or do doesn\u2019t make it right for us. Madisyn Taylor recently wrote about \u201cgoing against what it popular.\u201d She goes on to say, \u201c\u2026part of the way that something becomes popular is that many of us don\u2019t take the time to determine what\u2019s right for us; we simply do what most of the people we know are doing. In this way, our decisions about life are made by default, which means they aren\u2019t what we call conscious decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to suggest a game for you to play this week. Just for the fun of it, question everything you do for a day. I don\u2019t mean you have to stop and analyze everything so you don\u2019t get anything done. Just take a breath and ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing. Do you really want to do it? Why are you buying a particular product? If you discover that you are at a loss to explain your motivation then perhaps you are being manipulated by societal pressure, someone special in your life, a lack of self-esteem or self-confidence, or just a victim to marketing.<\/p>\n In other words, take back your life, because I can assure you of this: You are doing something in your life, buying something on a regular basis (or lusting after it), or acting in a particular way that just doesn\u2019t feel right, yet you continue to do it. Really, you say? Great \u2013 you are the person to whom I\u2019m speaking in particular. Take the challenge and then write me to tell me why I\u2019m wrong. Wanna play?<\/p>\n In Spirit, Truth and Playfulness,<\/p>\n Terry<\/p>\n P.S. Happy New Year! May 2014 bring you all the joy, love, laughter and prosperity you can accept!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of my favorite people to fly with at my \u201cday job\u201d is an Austrian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen. You\u2019d never think he was anything but American, at least until you get into a conversation with him. As Americanized as he is, his European roots are pretty close to the surface and a lot of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1674,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,85,82],"tags":[59,121,119,123,120,72,122,117,118],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-peace","category-spiritual-living-2","category-spirituality-2","tag-authentic-self","tag-empowerment","tag-greek-yogurt","tag-individuality","tag-joy","tag-power","tag-self-confidence","tag-social-pressure","tag-stress"],"yoast_head":"\n