As children, our parents and those who care for us play a very significant role in our development in that they assist in shaping our opinions and even how we reason. Values so subtly conveyed that we can hardly be aware of them influence how we perceive reality and behave.
So it is in the process of being unique and growing up to be our true selves that we engage in such practices. This enables one to own the individual’s opinions and life decisions based on individual’s convictions rather than reiterate on a certain path as dictated by the society. However, for a good life to be achieved, you must assume responsibility in the manner developing your thinking and mindset versus your parents.
Parents’ mindset can significantly influence their children’s persistence and academic skills. They are the key establishers in the foundations of their children’s mindsets.
Developing Your Thinking and Mindset Versus Your Parents
Such a person is likely to listen to their inner voice and be guided by it, meeting the needs of the soul, if one has to be one’s person.
Identity Formation and Separation from Parents
A noteworthy issue is the process of identity formation and the process of separation from the parents, which can be a significant challenge for teenagers and young adults. One of the key aspects of this is the process of finding your way of thinking and your attitude that can be different from that of your parents. While the belief system that was shaped by your parents during your childhood years is a part of you that is quite unshakable.
As you grow up, it is perfectly normal for you to question some elements of this, to be a critical thinker, and to make your own decisions. This difference in perspectives can often be referred to as a mindset gap, highlighting the divergence between the inherited beliefs and the newly formed individual viewpoints.
Why the Cultivation of Independent Ideas is Relevant?
Rather than critically analyzing the messages you receive from your parents and incorporating the healthy aspects of the paradigm while rejecting the unhealthy aspects, you become a mere duplicate or clone of your parents. Some key reasons why it’s vital to form your way of thinking include:
Fosters Your Identity Development
In an attempt to understand who a person is, they have to engage in a process of introspection and self-evaluation. Regarding how well they uphold the ideals that have been handed down to them while also embracing their own personal convictions. It assists in defining who you are, what you like, and what you are all about.
Promotes Independent Decision-Making
Delegation of the entire decision-making power to your parents hinders you from being decisive regarding matters of choice as regards relationships, career, lifestyle, and other matters. Self-generated beliefs prepare you to choose what is useful in your life.
Avoids Judgmental Thinking
Parents also pass their bias when judging people and issues; therefore, evaluating the unquestioned assumptions you have learned from parents offers you an opportunity to view things from a different perspective. This helps mitigate prejudice.
Promotes Accountability for Achievements and Faults
If your behavior and choices are coming from your thought process, then you can rightfully claim credit for the wins, and bear the brunt of the losses rather than blaming your parents.
Steps to Develop Your Mindset
It is a question that many people usually ask regarding the development of their mindset:
1. Suspend Acceptance of Parents’ Beliefs and Opinions
The first step contains the identification of parents’ perspectives that they have imposed on you, for example political, social, financial, religious or spiritual, relationship, parenting, or any other facet. Then critically evaluate whether the identified views are still yours or not.
This seems quite logical, does it ring a bell with you? Are such beliefs in harmony with the person you are and the person you want to transform into? Write down the areas where you feel that there is synergy or lack of it with other members.
2. Educate Yourself
To grow intellectually, watch what you read, take classes, and lectures, talk to new people, and get as much information as possible. Learning more about subjects enables one to come up with informed opinions that are logical and rational. Some of the decisions may include explaining to peers what you are learning to hear their side of the story.
3. Stay Natural and Support Your Parents in Having Honest Conversations
Parents, therefore, should engage in an open and non-emotional conversation with their child that they know is wrong because by doing so they learn the child’s way of thinking and vice versa. This will give every one of the involved persons a chance to express themselves and there might be a chance of coming to some agreement.
4. Trust Your Instincts
Many people should embrace what they feel is right in their inner self-guidance system.The process of developing opinions and perspectives calls for the use of both icy logic and warm emotion. An individual’s emerging self is associated with their gut instinct.
5. Find Like-Minded Mentors
Consequently, find other persons like teachers, religious leaders, fellow workers, or friends who hold or think towards positive beliefs that are closer to what you are developing. This way, one gets input from those who exhibit the kind of thinking the goal is to cultivate within, and this helps solidify the neural connections regarding such.
6. Practicality of Thoughts
People stay loyal to an organization or accept certain behaviors that are not good for them because of the expectations of the organization or from personal perception. For a plan, rely on your own growing endowment when it comes to making choices at every junction. They also state that personal behaviors, relationships, and lifestyles should be congruent with one’s belief system. Continuing to act in the way that you have adopted, to also align with the mindset you have established, enhances self-sufficiency.
7. Accept Responsibility
If one were to perform autonomously and something goes wrong, do not blame your upbringing when things go wrong or a decision is bad. If you’re going through a rough time, don’t blame your parentage, take time to look within and seek to improve from your mistakes. This creates confidence in bearing both achievements and risks that result from self-generated thinking.
Final Words
Whereas accepting some of your parents’ way of thinking occurs involuntarily during early years, intentionally cultivating your outlook and philosophy is both distinctive of emerging adulthood and beneficial. As parents try to guide their children and pass on their beliefs, understandably, they may at times overdo it and completely surrender their child’s life to their control.
Participating in the process of knowledge construction, acquiring information independently, and exploring, and reflecting on the information developing your thinking and mindset versus your parents. The result is the freedom to go in any direction you choose.