Advice for Loving Life Pt. 2

In my life right now, I do not have any idols. I don’t think people should. 

I have found if you idolize people, they will always let you down.  What I do think people should have are role models.   When you idolize someone, you put them at higher importance than yourself.  Why?  What possesses people to think someone else is more important than them just because they think someone is funnier, smarter, or more attractive than them? Simone de Beauvoir, one of my favorite philosophers, says men and women are like giants and dwarves.  Women shrink themselves because they see men as god-like because that’s what they’re taught.  Women are conditioned to think that men should take care of the responsibilities and they’re far more important because of it.  Yet, when women think of men this way they’re always found disappointed because men are only human and cannot measure up to anything more than that.

In a less feminist driven view of that analogy, people who idolize other people put themselves in that situation.  For example, someone who might have idolized Miley Cyrus circa 2008 would be highly devastated to find she makes imperfect decisions.  In my personal life I have found that the people I once idolized stopped caring about me, or treated me as if I was less important them.  (This, of course, is excluding family.  Sorry guys, I don’t idolize you.  You’re my role models.)  You shouldn’t give anyone the opportunity to claim superiority to you simply because you like who they are.  You are just as important as anyone else, and that’s two-fold.  You should realize that not only are your needs and wants no more important than someone else, but you are just as important as everyone else in the world.  So when you pick role models, find people who you appreciate on the same level as yourself. 

I would never tell anyone who to consider a role model, but I do suggest never idolizing anyone.  In other words, don’t be careful who you look up to (that’s completely up to you), but be careful how you look up to them.

Don’t forget to consider yourself in your list of awesome people. 

 

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