This headline was inspired by from Billie Carn's excellent article about mavericks, who are they, where does that name come from, their mindset, how conformist world could better tolerate them and how everybody could benefit from their out-of-the-box thinking. I highly recommend reading Billies article before continuing ..
I 've personally always flown my own line and too often it felt like upwind but I didn't understand why until later in my life. Now I know, that in order to innovate and introduce anything new one must be willing to think outside the norm. In order to create something new one must be willing and capable not only to think but also to act against the norm and that process is basically a way of life. Going upwind or upstream in modern democratic society where basic natural laws have been replaced with 1,612,899 laws and counting it is always a bit of a challenge which separates small fish from the big.
The normietypical mindset is paradoxically extremely intolerant to anything that represents deviation from their norm (perhaps one of the reason for banning everything in increasing rate?). The average person has been conditioned to fear since childhood. There are many types of fears in many different levels. Some are conscious and some unconscious. Some are rational while most are certainly not. Parents, caregivers, siblings, school, friends, media, government agencies and religions constantly bombard an individual with elements of invisible control that consists mostly of fear, shame and ignorance.
Original maverick has to overcome all those negative mind- and body controlling elements to free himself and create something new. It does take courage to be free but it's totally doable for anybody, it just takes time and knowhow to peel away years of bad habits in thinking and doing.
One good way to start is to get involved with an activity which is rooted with reality, like any extreme sport or martial art. There are many false prophets out there so be careful. A complete maverick also needs to peel away that layer of ignorance but that comes naturally for a curious mind that never stops asking questions.
Further reading:
Billie's Maverick Wisdom site: http://maverickwisdom.com
My interview on Maverick Wisdom: http://maverickwisdom.com/jari-kuosma/
The Maverick Mindset article:
Thank you Jari.
This adds depth to my piece on The Maverick Mindset. Billie x 😃