A Step-by-Step Guide: Are you ready to take control of your social conditionings, setting you free and unlocking your true potential?
In this blog post, I aim to offer a step-by-step guide on uncovering your social conditionings and developing a new way of thinking and living. I’ll discuss recognising your behaviours’ deeper motivations and challenging conventional thinking. The purpose is to help you set boundaries and free yourself from the habits and traditional views that could prevent you from living as your best version.
Challenging Conventional Thinking, a.k.a. Thinking Outside Your Box!
No matter where you were born, regardless of gender, race, religion or background. Your life has to this day, been influenced by your social conditions, by the box, well, rather boxes (because they are far from being just one thing) the society has placed you into.
The boxes you are in are your way of seeing the world. As we mention in our book The Story of Boxes, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, your boxes can be all three things — good, bad, and ugly.
The problem with so many of our boxes is how blindsided we are by them. As 95% of your typical day is coloured by your habits, rituals and traditions, it’s often challenging to discover what box doesn’t fit you anymore as you are evolving into the person you desire to be or, as I see it, the person you were always meant to become, your true self!
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Analysing Your Social Conditioning is vital for unlocking the potential and possibilities in your life. By exploring your social conditioning, you can become more aware of how this affects your life and allow yourself to challenge it actively.
By examining our ideas about ourselves, our values, and our expectations from society — both socially accepted today and those which may have been passed down generationally — we can begin to break away from traditional thought patterns and uncover hidden capabilities within ourselves.
I’m born and living in Iceland, a country known for being liberal for gender equality and has ranked number one in the world for over a decade. I’ve been so fortunate as an international speaker, personal branding and leadership coach, mentor and author to see people evolve around me, moving from being stuck in a fixed box to letting themself go and setting themselves free from their conditionings.
The outcome gives me goosebumps every single time. I’ve seen men do that, and I’ve seen countless women doing that. I’ve worked with people of different races, religions, and backgrounds.
They have all been able to spot and expand their box; some have even escaped it completely!
And so can you!
Assessing Your Social Conditioning encompasses looking at what influences shape your thinking and behaviour, including family, culture, media/social media accounts that you follow/endorse etc.
It also involves evaluating what role these influences play in constructing your worldviews or attitude towards certain aspects of life — such as education, relationships & financial security — so that you can recognise preconceived narratives or biases ingrained in yourself that require unpacking & re-framing before making decisions on important matters in your own life journey.
This is not about an opportunity to blame someone. You should only observe and notice.
Inspecting Your Social Conditionings refers to delving into why certain beliefs or opinions have held true or false!
For example, you firmly believe what a woman or man is. You might feel men being forceful, strong leaders and women kind and caring. The expected outcome of that view is to ask men in your family or network for advice, trust their leadership, and simultaneously expect women in your family or network to show up as kind and caring. If people, or yourself, don’t follow that perception, they are judged.
Just think about your own judgement. You have most likely been judged by your society by gender, that you are too much this or too little that. Making your belief that you are not good enough, placing yourself into the ‘I’m not good enough box’, which is, in my experience, the most populated box ever!
Give Yourself Time & Space To Raise Your Awareness; Become More Conscious!
Over time, become conscious of how societal pressures shape your decisions and be accountable for any outdated views you may hold despite changes around them. This process often brings up uncomfortable truths about “culture”, but once uncovered will create an environment conducive to a healthier outlook & personal growth from now on!
I must mention that it’s essential not to find someone or something to blame for the situation. It is what it is — you can change how you talk about it, and the moment you do that, you change your perspective, and by changing your perspective, you change your energies around it.
In conjunction with analysing & assessing social conditionings comes the need to challenge conventional thinking. This means taking steps outside of our comfort zones (stepping out of your boxes) by questioning what beliefs were instilled within you during childhood and later.
By consciously recognising elements of external influence guiding internal decision-making processes & engaging in activities encouraging introspection when approaching complex issues, we open up doors allowing innovative approaches while also strengthening inner resolve, which would otherwise be weakened due to status quo mentalities still prevalent amongst many sectors- ultimately leading towards greater self-empowerment!
Unlocking Your True Potential
As I see it, everyone is born with a particular set of potentials and skills or a unique gift. Still, most of us need help to unlock these inherent abilities due to the various social conditions we encounter.
So, you are not alone on this journey.
On the contrary, reading this means you are already on the journey to look internally, get to know your true self better, and allow your soul to flourish.
It is essential to analyse these conditionings to identify barriers that stop one from harnessing their true potential. Understanding how the everyday pressures of society dictate one’s actions can help one gain insight into themselves and hone their most powerful skills and gifts.
This is a journey.
And I’m telling you, taking this journey is so rewarding as it eventually sets you free to be more and more your beautiful self.
To successfully analyse your social conditioning, objectively assessing yourself and those around you is crucial.
Ask yourself different kinds and most likely challenging questions, such as;
- What expectations have been placed on you and why?
- Who has influenced your values in life or career choice?
- What kinds of decisions do you make when confronted by different scenarios?
Explore these factors further so that you can obtain clarity about why specific issues might be affecting the pace at which you can reach your goals and discover ways on how best to break through them.
After analysing your social conditioning, it’s vital to assess whether they are helping or hindering your growth.
Take inventory daily, even hourly, or minute by minute.
Are your boxes good, bad or ugly?
This process includes recognising outdated mental models that may prevent progress; identifying biases in decision-making; spotting patterns between influences from external sources; questioning motives behind choices made, etcetera.
As part of this stage, try also examining if there are resources available that could benefit yourself or others who are having similar struggles within the same space.
Looking into support networks such as mentorship programmes or having your own leadership coach will always serve beneficial outcomes towards unlocking unique possibilities!
Inspecting your social conditionings means looking at how influence shapes individual preferences associated with specific topics -such as relationships, education/career motivations, religion, change management etc.
Evaluating opinions on these areas while factoring in dynamic forces like age, gender, cultural background, socio-economic status, war trauma, or other issues may guide one in identifying long-term solutions for peaceful communication collaboration and understanding on mutual grounds within the selected sphere beyond it.
It is essential to go beyond superficial level conversations to evaluate the depth of one’s emotional state. Also, consider what can give direction towards unlocking true potential by exploring the objectives aided or missed through daily habits.
Understanding how our upbringing and environment shape our views and beliefs allows us to choose what we want to do with them.
Once you are aware of the boxes that are no longer serving you, you can choose!
You can choose to LIVE in them — if you decide to do that, make sure you love that box! And make sure other people don’t have to love it too!
You can also choose to LEAVE the box, expanding it so that fresh oxygen can uplift your mindset, moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
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Previously Published on Medium
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