I fell into this trap joking with my wife daily that we are "the poorest of the poor", although we dreamed of being "rich". We induced ourselves into certain beliefs about money our whole life, so it was very difficult for us to understand how we would like to live our lives in the true meaning.

Society has always functioned according to group rules. Even at the highest levels, even in politics, it all boils down to the group and the rules of the group.

A group can often help you evolve, but at the same time, it can make you biased. Each social group has its brain - let's call it the collective brain. This collective brain contains all the knowledge of the individuals belonging to that group. It has its own rules to label individuals outside the group and does not want anyone else to join the group unless that individual has the same interests, values​​, and principles. In essence, this is not bad. This helps us as a society evolve and focus on the problems and solutions we care about.

But, there are some unaddressed issues in the group equation.

1. The philosophy of the ring^[1] - suppose there was a ring that could control all power. If owned by one person, then that person will be attracted by the great power it holds and will act according to personal interests. The point is, there are a few people who tend to be recognized by other group members as the most important. And as a result, the other members of the group only behave by following these people. Many will believe them and will not feel the need to fight them and bring counterarguments. I advise you to take this into account when you see that someone does not accept opinions different from those of these people.
2. Biased by collective knowledge and not growing organically^[2] – if everyone is discussing the same topics and interests without accepting new ideas, concepts, solutions, or fresh thinking from outside, the overall knowledge of the group will flatten and the collective brain will become increasingly biased.
3. By being in a group, you are also forced to think in a way, in the way of the group. Sometimes is very useful for your growth, but sometimes you might be discouraged by people who don't truly believe in you or your ideas. These people will have nothing to say to you but how you are wrong and how everything that you do is wrong. You just have to believe in yourself. I suggest you wake up 30 min earlier every day and start to think about all the things that matter to you, all the things that you enjoy, and all the things that you believe you can make work because you are not biased and you have a good overview of the subject matter. Write down and try to find the people that you think they can do that, and who could help you to achieve those. In contrast, write down all the people who demotivate you, and who won't believe in you.

It is said that you become the average of the first five people you spend time with. Be careful who you're spending time with.

What can we do? We can evolve and exchange ideas about the same interests by having new people in the group and by not acknowledging the same VIPs of the group daily. Try to foresee issues in their thinking or decisions when something is proposed, and don't just accept their view of the world.

"If you have an idea, that you genuinely think is good, don't let some idiot talk you out of it."
– Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Universe and its superheroes, about Spiderman being rejected

It may happen from time to time to tag yourself in a very wrong way. That happens because you start to compare with others. Stop doing that. Every person is very different from us and has their problems and challenges. Some of us had bad luck, while others didn't. Stop comparing yourself with others, and start comparing yourself with a previous version of yourself. If the previous version is better than you are today, maybe try to reach down to the older version of you and try to ask it what you can do.

Because of social beliefs, you may say that you can not make money, or you can not do something. Stop pitying yourself.

Money is only a concept that we can use to achieve this vision of a perfect life, the vision can be visualized only by ourselves. Try to view yourself in the future and try to see how your life can become in a few years. You might be in deep shit right now, but if you're working on it, in a few months or years, you might get where you want if you are writing your SMART goals.

There are a lot of other options by which you can obtain anything you wish for. 1000 years ago, people bartered. It all depends on the mindset you approach, and remember to interact with people who believe in you.

Tomorrow, you either wake up by being angry and interacting nervously with everyone around you, or you choose to wake up strong, happy, without stress, and full of life because you didn't have a stroke overnight, and you choose to see all the ways you could be happier and stronger today than you were yesterday.

Footnotes

1. The ring of power philosophy colmes from “The Ring of Gyges” by Plato. The main idea is this: If a person could be certain not only that an action resulting in personal benefit would not be discovered but also that if this action were discovered, no punishing consequences would follow, then would there be any reason for that person to act morally?
2. In-group Bias (also know as In-group favouritism) is well described in this article about In-group Bias