Victor Frankl - Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose

I am currently reading THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE from Stephane R. Covey. Printed in 1989, it has still a high impact on people around the world. This book is recommended in every New Age magazine or seminar.

I just started this book, but almost every paragraph makes me think. Here one example:

... Within the freedom to choose are those endowments that make us uniquely human. In addition to self-awareness, we have imagination - the ability to create in our minds beyond our present reality. We have conscience - a deep inner awareness of right and wrong, of the principles that govern our behavior, and a sense of the degree to which our thoughts and actions are in harmony with them. And we have independent will - the ability to act based on our self-awareness, free of all other influences.
Even the most intelligent animals have none of these endowments. To use a computer metaphor, they are programmed by instinct and/or training. They can be trained to be responsible, but they can't take responsibility for that training; in other words, they can't direct it. They can't change the programming. They're not even aware of it. ...

Doesn't this sound familiar to you? Isn't the majority of humankind either aware of the training they receive from parents, from teachers ... from the system? They cannot direct the education they receive, they cannot change the "program". The program is written by the government or by people in the history, set up as so called tradition for example ... But we are human, we should be aware of the program we get taught, and we should be able to change it.

• But why don't people do it? Scared to be out of the comfort zone?
• Why do you let other people decide about what you have to believe? Why do you let other people decide about your lunch time, about your holidays?
• Step out of yourself for a moment and watch yourself. Where is your imagination? Create your own reality, and just be aware of the reality other people force at you.
• Why do you let other people decide about what is right or wrong? Use your conscience and you will feel what is ok with you.
• Where is your independent will? Why do most people let tradition guide them through life?
• Are you aware of yourself?
• Where is your human behavior?

Think about it!

Practice yourself in little things, and thence proceed to greater - Epictetus