Recently, I have mentioned the direction in life frequently. Although I introduced it in an earlier post (this article), I will explain it from another perspective today.
How to find a direction to live
Sometimes, we want a solid direction in life because it gives us a way of life with confidence and comfort. If we head in that direction, we can use our talents to the best of our ability. That allows us to break through difficulties. In other words, we get neither bored nor stagnated.
However, we sometimes don’t know what direction suits us due to our strange personalities. Many teachings and common sense are for the majority. On the other hand, we are the minority in personality. Those common success laws often don’t work for our way of life. That confusion suffers us.
By the way, if we want to live our lives while fulfilling our strange natures, we use a sense of direction rather than a map because we cannot rely on maps. What we want is different from what the majority wants. Following the majority map with clear destinations makes us unsure of where we want to go.
We can rely on the sense of direction in that case. Although the direction is vague, it gives us a peaceful mind because our lives improve gradually.
That is why we want a solid direction in life.
Today, I will introduce the difference in direction between the majority and the minority in personality. This distinction might tell us which direction to go.
The four types of personalities
To explain it, I will introduce the four types of personalities, as shown in the following image:
We classify our personalities by two axes: empathy and creativity.
Two directions in living
In my opinion, there is a direction in which we can live comfortably, although there are many ways to live and we are free to go in any direction we want. Let me introduce my way of thinking.
To make it easier to understand, I will show two directions, as shown in the following image:
- The direction of dependence: The way of life that uses social resources well. This is for those who live in society. If society develops, they will also get wealthy, but if society perishes, they will perish. This is for the majority.
- The direction of independence: The way of life not influenced by society. This is for those who live away from society. Although they are less likely to benefit from social growth, they can survive and help people, even if society collapses. That prevents human or social extinction. This is for the minority.
In this article, assume we are innovative empaths, the social minority, and are heading toward independence.
Dependence vs. independence
Let’s show the difference between dependence and independence.
(Dependence) vs. (Independence)
- Life with abundant social resources vs. fewer ones
- Increasing relationships with others vs. reducing ones
- Asking society to do it first and then do it themselves vs. doing it for ourselves first and then asking society.
- Moving toward the center of society vs. moving toward the outside of it
- The power of arrogance vs. humility
- Enjoying artificial and luxurious vs. natural and survival
- Want to connect with social power vs. find efficiency with less influence by society
- Afraid to lose social relationships vs. Afraid to lose resources
Let me explain more below.
Life with more social resources or less
Distinguishing between dependent and independent ways of life is the key to solving our confusion.
The majority depends on society for their lives as much as possible. They want others to do it for them and don’t want to do it themselves. That makes them try to use social resources as much as possible. They want to eat out. They want someone else to do the housework. Socializing and spending money are typical examples.
Having a lot of acquaintances is one of the insurances against troubles. If we are close to someone with resources, we can ask them for help.
Money is a primary tool for utilizing social resources. Some social resources are precious, and some are inexpensive. Money makes it easier to measure the value of resources.
That is why the majority believe that a higher price is valuable.
In other words, spending more and more money and leaving their tasks to others are efficient in society. That develops society. They are not afraid of losing money because they can earn it soon, as long as society is stable.
That is the socially dependent way of life.
An independent way of life
On the other hand, in an independent way of life, we do them ourselves as much as possible because we have fewer social resources.
Although common sense says having more friends or associates is better, it doesn’t apply to an independent way of life.
We value frugality or efficiency more than luxury because we don’t have the desire to ask others to do everything for us. That makes us realize that price and value are different. In other words, people who can discern price and value can be frugal.
We will be humble because there are fewer resources. Arrogance is an efficient attitude to win social competition. It allows us to control others and dominate social resources. On the other hand, humility is an efficient way to survive in the wilderness. We cannot control something bigger than us, such as the law of nature.
That allows us to survive comfortably, even with fewer social resources. Perhaps we can enjoy such survival and natural life.
Society will collapse at some point
If we are the personality minority, we don’t have to stick to society because society prioritizes the majority and will inevitably decay and die at some point. The majority doesn’t always have an advantage. There is only a difference in the way of life. In addition, death comes in all lives. Human society is the same.
In other words, all societies will go through turbulent periods. During that period, society becomes a place of scrambling. The war is an example. People try to secure more social resources during that period because they depend on social resources. That makes society a living hell.
During that time, people who live away from society play an active role. They can live comfortably with fewer social resources. That way of living helps those who want to escape from social turmoil.
Perhaps an independent life is such a way of life.
Conclusion
That is the difference in direction between the majority and the minority in personality.
This distinction might tell us which direction to go.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
