What Is Self Reliance?

 

Self Reliance is defined by The Free Dictionary as the “Reliance on one’s own capabilities, judgment, or resources; independence”.

Most searches of the term “self-reliance” on the Internet also return this description. “Self-Reliance is an essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.” In his notorious essay, written in 1841, Emerson himself defined self-reliance as “the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas”.

One of Emerson’s most famous quotations went like this, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Or, as Albert Einstein famously coined about insanity, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”. Self-reliance is based on the fundamental belief that you can, and should, change and control your circumstances. I have and so can you.

Self-Reliance means different things to different people. However, the underlying meaning always is that self refers to the individual, reliance refers to the dependence on a person, place, or thing, and that self-reliance, therefore is the state in which one is fully responsible for his own state – independence. That is your goal.

What is self reliance to me? It’s possessing the ability to control my own destiny, to live a life of my own design, to prosper while society declines, to feel secure