Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of women with their ring fingernail painted a different color than the rest of their nails.  

I’ve asked a handful of them why it’s painted different and have yet to get a concrete answer.  

The answer given is some variation of…

“I don’t know, it’s what everybody else is doing, it’s in style.

Cool, I’m hip, I get it.  😐 
(Reads: I’m not cool, hip, and I don’t get it)

I guess there’s no harm when all we’re talking about is fingernails, but it points to the root of other human issues.

Everybody has a slave so I might as well have one too.

Everybody’s eating fast food and drinking soda it can’t be that bad.

Everybody is mean to him…there must be a reason why…I don’t want people to be mean to me as well…so I will be mean to him too.

Everybody’s jumping over that cliff…weee….this is fun!…SPLAT!

Just because “everybody” else is doing something does not mean we should be doing it.  (Thanks for the lesson moms of the world.)

Groupthink can be dangerous to the individual and the group.

Furthermore, conformity isn’t always a good thing and often is an impediment to progress.

Lastly, the only things you can control 100% is how you think and the actions you make.

Do you really want to leave the only things we have control over up to a group?

A group that you likely do not have 100% alignment with?

A group that likely does not have the exact same goals, thoughts, principles, and beliefs as you?

A group that is stuck in groupthink where individuals are not thinking for themselves?

What area are you doing something because it’s what everybody else is doing?

Now, how would you prefer to be doing or not doing that thing?

Do that.

Brett “Step Away from the Cliff” Denton