How important is Self-Awareness?

The two fledgling Red Tail Hawks appeared to fall out of the tree the nest is in, dropping about 20 feet then suddenly at the same instant they swooped skyward. It appeared to be the first time they left the nest, mother hawk was out of my sight, but it didn't mean she was not watching them. The fledglings leave the nest 45 days after hatching, that would mean these two hatched around June 1st, 2018.

These are not the Red Tailed Hawks I saw. This is a stock photo.

Crows fly by constantly, almost always being chased by smaller birds, 2 or 3 normally, but sometimes an entire flock is in pursuit of the raven black predator. They rob the smaller nests of the baby birds, crows have a varying diet which includes everything from fruit and nuts to small furry mammals. After the eggs, hatch crow chicks remain in the nest for 21 days, at that time they fledge and they like the Hawks take a dive off of a tree limb. Emerging from their eggs it takes a mere two weeks for them to attain the same size as their parents. Remaining in the nest for 21 days it takes another 14 until they are capable of being on their own, however, it takes 51 days from hatching until they leave the nest for good, just under two months. Most animals are dependent upon their parents for at least a short while after birth, or after hatching. The larger the animal the longer the dependency and gestation is.

The Elephant is one of the largest animals living on our planet, they have the longest gestation period of any land animal. Twenty-Two months is the normal pregnancy, the result is the birth of one baby weighing about 230 pounds (105 Kilograms). Drinking 3 gallons of milk a day for a two year period, on occasion it is extended longer. At 4 months they begin to mimic their parents eating plants and normal Elephant food, still needing milk from their mothers. The Elephants, like humans, stay with their mothers for 16 years, comparable to humans, however, if the mother dies the young Elephants have little chance to survive. Mammals have a longer dependency period than all other animals.

Elephants are amazing animals

That period of dependency may be more accurately described as a period of self-deficiency, the polar opposite of self-reliance. Humans are born with the inability to perform even the most basic of tasks upon birth, we are fully dependent on our parents for at least 6 years. Human babies cannot lift their heads for the first two months of life, we roll over at 4 months, sit up for around 6 months, and begin to stand at 9. Quite a contrast to a gazelle fawn which is able to run full speed within a few hours after birth. Humans have to learn a lot during those first 1/2 dozen years, each step of the way we build on our self-reliance skills. We build confidence in every step we take, continuing with running, swimming, and various sporting activities. Taking almost 10 years to be able to understand and execute the most basic functions of our lives.

Those basic functions have a lot to do with the ability to predict how the actions we take today will relate to us in the future. Known as "Subjective Conscienceness", some scientist researching the Conscienceness theory claim that is what separates humans from animals. It is a large component of becoming "self-reliant", without knowing if it rains day and night for two weeks we may have to endure a flood, there is no way we would be able to prepare for it. By the time we are 20 years old most of us have found out not to touch a stove to find out if it is hot.

(follow this Link to a paper on subjective consciousness for more in-depth information.)

That's how we learn, by doing, making mistakes, and injuring ourselves in the process. Everything we do teaches us something, us humans learn mostly from example, then we test it out, trial and error. An error is the easiest route to success, it may sound odd but that is the fact, how many times have we all failed at our first attempt? Upon failure many times we make the exclamation "let me try it again, I know I can do it." From taking our first steps to jumping out of an airplane later in life, self-reliance is gained almost by self-sacrifice.

We plan, many times we are obsessed with a task and over think it, sometimes I will go over every step of a project many times, I will write notes, make drawings and make a mock-up in the garage. Other times we know from experience that a certain procedure or plan will work, from experience, sometimes from advice. People relating their experiences performing tasks will only take us so far, there comes a time for us to stop talking and get to work. It is when we get to work that the learning begins in earnest, learning opportunities abound. Every mistake, every error, every miscalculation adds to our knowledge, gaining confidence is the end result, the more we do the more confident we become. Welcoming mistakes is a positive approach, in fact dropping the word mistake from our vocabulary is a step in the correct direction. Personally, I refer to them as learning opportunities, the third or fourth-time successful completion is often the reality. There are people that never make a mistake, or so it seems.

Those who do not commit errors or make mistakes are normally the people not doing anything, or in some cases, they are good at hiding them. A case in point is when I was employed at a company making food processing equipment. The job involved a lot of metal work, welding, and crate building, it's easy to make a mistake in fabrication, in fact, it is accepted. One man never seemed to make mistakes, everything he did was correct, he made one attempt and the projects he worked on were good to go. No one spent all day watching the guy, it was accepted as he was a very gifted tradesman, and he was. One day we were tasked with cleaning all of the junk from around the building, the rear backed up to a train track. The back doors of the shop were rarely opened, in fact normally spider webs had to be wiped off of them for their annual exercise. The back of the shop was an undesirable place to be, besides the tracks, homeless lived under the Oleander bushes, and the sun beat down on the Northwest wall during the summer. We went to the back alley and found a pile of discarded material, this employee took every mistake he made and threw them out the back door thinking they would never be found. We found them, it was not a big deal the guy was still a gifted craftsman but it left me with a realization that all things are not as they appear. He most likely learned more from his mistakes than anyone due to his embarrassment as evidenced by his hiding them. Self-Awareness goes hand and hand with Self-Reliance, we must be aware of our actions in order to learn and add to our life's skills.

(This Link leads to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on becoming Self-Reliant)

Reading numerous blogs, forums, and articles I came across one in a forum I follow loosely where a question was posted on how to start being self-reliant. How to start? I find that question puzzling, we start at birth and build on our knowledge our entire life. There is no start and no end, (sounds a bit like Astro-Physics doesn't it?) We learn continually, or we should, I did write a comment, I suggested the writer starts with water, learn everything possible about water. It's as good as any place to begin if one feels totally un-self-reliant, that is dependent on other people for even basic tasks of life. Going out and doing, experiencing life, planning for weekend excursions, maybe take up backpacking, anything that will expand our horizons is, in fact, becoming dependent upon ourselves. What happens when we do get older and we are truly on our own? To what degree are we ever really self-reliant, how many of us are capable of living on our own with no human interactions in the way of socializing or assisting in day to day life? We can think of crafty ways to perform certain tasks, like loading a heavy object into a vehicle or fixing our meals but, how important are interpersonal relationships, can we ever be self-sufficient without them? Is it possible to be self-reliant in the most obvious areas, raising food, providing shelter for ourselves, keeping entertained and improving our lives? Does self-reliance include our need for human relationships, do we need people to survive, how much do we rely on each other.

How much do we rely on one another?

Being self-reliant is in many ways dependent on other people, our neighbors, friends, and families. That's what a community is all about, some of us are mechanical, some are farmers, some can make clothing and you name it we each excel in some tasks. None of us are able to do it all, I have observed most of us end up performing tasks we are naturally adept at. Self-reliance is a bit of an oxymoron, we depend on each other, no man is an island. We pass on our skills and knowledge to the generation following us.

Folklore, apprenticeships, and yes schooling prepare us for life to a certain degree. The knowledge passed from generation to generation is important, however, if a skill is passed on the one being taught must possess some natural ability, or at the least a desire to learn the tasks. Being Self-Aware is instrumental in our goal of becoming self-reliant, we must know our limitations, without that knowledge we may be headed for frustrating experiences. Sometimes we are so far in the dark on a subject, at least I am, we don't know what questions to ask, we have no self-awareness. We on occasion believe we know everything about a subject when in fact we know very little, knowing the difference is being self-aware. Which will create curiosity, in turn creating a quest for knowledge, making us more self-reliant, and better able to accept self-responsibility. It all creates confidence in our abilities and knowledge, enabling us to each become a responder during an emergency versus a victim.

Folklore, storytelling, and passing on experiences to the next
generation, are all a part of being Self-Reliant.

Victimization has no place in being self-reliant, blaming, claiming to be a victim, and being despondent about being unfairly treated as well are not in the plank of being as independent as we can possibly be.

How is it possible to create a list, write a book, or explain to someone how to become self-sufficient? We cannot, it would include every human activity we engage in, that is the reason we learn from the day we are born, like an Elephant, 16 years, or a bird in just a matter of a few months. My suggestion is to do as much as possible, let our curiosity run wild, experiment, and try out everything we can. I will be Orwellian, "Failure is a success." Allow mistakes to happen, learn from them, welcome them, and get up and get back on.

Thanks for reading and sharing, leave a comment and follow me on G+. Self-reliance is one way of saying "I am confident in myself, and family, friends, and neighbors."

jacquesandkate  Emergencykitsplus.com