Navigating this world is difficult. And that’s why we seek friends, companions, gurus, teachers, etc. who can help us navigate the travails of this world and life.

At a young age, it’s easy enough as a kid to rely on parents’ and teachers’ advice to understand the world and what to do and what not, what can hurt, and how to enjoy. And even having them make decisions on your behalf until you can differentiate between the good and the bad.

The challenge starts once that kid grows up as a teenager and starts to have a mind of his own. His thinking is different from his parents and teachers. His approach towards the problems is different, his learnings and experiences are different from his parents, relatives, and teachers.

Having a mind of own is not a bad thing and neither is approaching things differently. However, in today’s world, millions of fake gurus, influencers, life coaches, thought leaders, etc. influence our thinking.

That’s where it’s important to remember that most of those people who are attracting you towards their ideas, philosophies, and thought processes aren’t even sure about themselves. It’s fake confidence and arrogance that lace their books, podcasts, and sermons. It’s very difficult in today’s world for an individual to have his thought process. The noise around is so loud and messages so convincing that people don’t care about their thoughts, families, careers, and in some cases even about their lives.

If you focus hard enough you will notice that every message, every theory, every philosophy, every altruism has a hidden agenda behind it. Someone is always selling something to you through those messages. The ironic part of it, there will always be an anti-theory or a completely different philosophy that will also exist in the same world, which will also have its ardent supporters.

• If you believe, hard work is the key to success, there will be a theory that will tell you doing hard work is dumb.
• If you believe success can only be measured through numbers and stats, you can easily discover people who will showcase that numbers are not the right way to gauge success.
• If you push your kids to be goal-focused in life, there are studies conducted that focusing solely on goals is not the right way to live life, in that process you ignore many other important aspects of your life.
• And then there is regular atheist vs non-atheist and political ideologies differences that exist in all walks of life.

In many cases, people have been devoted to a theory, a life philosophy, a guru, or a thought process, only to discover the other side of it later in life. And they become disenchanted so much so that they refuse to believe anything else or anyone else in this world again. And some are often so confused with this noise that they can’t make any decision.

So then the question is who to rely on, in this world? Whom to trust? Who to listen to? Who to call your friend or advisor?

It’s a difficult question and yet simple enough if you think about it. Your conscience is your best friend in navigating your life and this world. It will always tell you what’s right and what’s wrong even if others are telling you differently.

Often you repent the scenarios or decisions where you didn’t listen to your conscience rather than when you listened to it. You hardly complain to yourself, “Why did I listen to my conscience, I should have cheated on that exam?” or “Why did I stop myself from investing in that quick rich scheme?”

Even when you see people around you getting ahead with immoral means and you question your conscience decisions, you still get to sleep peacefully at night, which is not the case with those people.

So listen to people who make some sense and teach you different things in life but don’t completely rely on them or their teachings. They are not telling you a universal truth but their experiences and in many cases they are simply lying to sell something.

Have a mind of your own, question, query, debate, read more about what you hear, and experience things for yourself. And then take a decision. It doesn’t matter what others think about that decision but what matters is how comfortable are you with that decision.

At the end of the day, only you have to live with yourself and you have to convince yourself more than anyone else about the decisions and actions you take in your life.