Trusting Yourself: Emerson’s Advice on Personal Action

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with [BS].

W.C. Fields (or not)

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls**t” (see History reference). That’s how I responded in class as an undergrad English major after my first encounter with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writing. Only there were no asterisks.

I was less than impressed with Emerson’s work. At the time, I saw his writing as bloated and erratic.

Today, I’m not even sure which of Emerson’s writings I was unhappy with. Possibly, “The Transcendentalist.” But it doesn’t really matter now.

I’ll confess: in those days, I was a tad closed off in terms of the ideas I wanted to entertain. So I didn’t really give Emerson much of a chance. And I’d not yet come to appreciate what a great thinker he was.

But that was then. This is now.

As you might guess, I’ve changed my opinion. I’ve come around to Team Emerson. If you’ve never read much or any of Emerson’s writing, I recommend you do. The website emersoncentral.com is a great place to start.

These days, my take is that Emerson is one of the most important figures in American history. And his writings are among the most valuable that we can engage. Why? Because they introduce us to the power we have as individuals to take control of the one life that’s truly ours to control—our own.

Who knows? Maybe Emerson could be seen as America’s first life coach. The epigraph above—that “Trust thyself” quotation at the top of this page—is a great example from Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance” (130). That sounds like life-coaching at its most basic.

Over the past several years, I’ve become a believer in personal development. I think each of us has a special duty to try to make the most of our gifts and desires. And an important part of this process is coming to believe in ourselves and what we have to offer—something I’m always working on for myself.

I’m also a strong believer in people in general, and in the value of teaching, training, and developing their abilities.

Truth be told, I’ve fought the battle to trust myself to take control of my life over the years. And I haven’t gone nearly far enough in heeding Emerson’s words. I’ve found it far too easy to lose myself in external expectations of what I should do, or fall prey to claims along the lines of This is how we all do X or Y.

So, what has changed for me? Well, for starters—this is different—writing this short essay and posting it to my website’s blog. This is a measure of control. It’s allowing a glimpse of who I am to come to the surface.

Some concerns come with it: What will others think? What if they hate what I write? What if they hate Emerson? What if—what if—what if?

Well, Emerson has a recipe for that, too. “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think,” he says. “This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness” (134).

To paraphrase: My only concern is what I need to do, and doing what I need to do could be the difference between living an ordinary life or living a great one.

It’s not a lot, this little essay. But it’s what I need to do now. So here it is. And who knows what else might come of it? Who knows what we may need to do tomorrow?

But I think it’s fitting that Emerson is at the heart of this little piece. Because to me, it shows the progress I’ve made personally, even as I look to go further. And I think it’s helpful for all of us to recognize and appreciate when we grow in the direction of our goals.

The takeaway is simple: Live in the light of self-trust and escape the shadows of others’ opinions. Tune in to the ring of your own “iron string,” and do that thing you know—or think—you need to do.


References

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Self-Reliance.” Selected Writings of Emerson, edited by Donald McQuade, Random House, Inc., 1981, pp. 129–53.

History: If You Can’t Dazzle Them with Brilliance, Baffle Them with … | Quotes of Famous People. https://quotepark.com/quotes/723034/history/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.

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