Wisdom survives challenge

If personal rebellion involves following your own path, your own voice, does that dismiss the value of external advice? Whatever the source?

No. But it measures it by a different standard. It holds it to the fire of your own internal voice, by metrics or standards that are divined from your own traits, conditioning, and values. It doesn’t accept them at face value.

This isn’t about just gut feel and intuition. It’s about saying external voices can be turned down in favor of an internal compass, and that it trusts an internal compass over an external one.

And it then validates that compass for its own sake. If the compass points in the same direction as external support and advice, then so be it. If it doesn’t, then so be it.

But crucially, it prioritizes internal direction over anything else. Because that alignment, that standing behind your own voice, gives rise to a struggle that dignifies a real tension, a tension that supports a real journey.

It’s confidence, in the truest sense.