Anything that shapes one’s thinking or behavior is a conditioning influence. A conditioning influence may originate either internally or externally. The three most common conditioning influences are the family, the social environment and personal attitudes toward mistakes and failure.
In our last post we looked at the influences of Family. Now let’s look at Social…
No one is an island. The adult, as well as the child, is subject to conditioning by outside influences and by the family. Youngsters are affected by interpersonal peer relationships, and teachers have an effect on their thinking, their conduct, and their personalities. As they grow older, the scene changes, and the names change, but social influences continue to bombard them. Ever since primitive people learned to band together for strength and protection, they have been conditioned by their environment and by society and its institutions. This, too, can be good. Without such conditioning, humanity might well have failed to survive.
Too much conditioned conformity, however, tends to Examine What Shapes Your Behavior cast all individuals in the same mold and they become average – fitting their talents and abilities into a mediocre model that everyone can match. Over-conditioned people lose the motivation to be what they were intended to be.
What is important to your personal leadership development is the determination of which conditioning influences are good and which are bad. You must learn to live in a society of compromise without being compromised. Recognize your unique possibilities. Make your own decisions about who you are and what you will become, rather than passively submit to the imprint of your environment.
The final post of this series will look at the Mistakes.
LMI Journal 2012
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