Learning to live with conflicting myths

Let me clarify, at the start, in Media and Cultural Studies the term ‘myth’ does NOT mean ‘a lie’. It means ‘stories or beliefs we live our lives by’. These myths contribute to and/or are influenced by our belief systems which drive our decisions, behaviour and lives.
Having spent the past 12 months setting up my own consultancy where I have to ‘sell’ myself to everyone I meet and to consciously go out and network with others to get my name ‘out there’ has got me tapping into one of the myths we live our lives by. In this case, the myth that is driving me goes something like this: “you can do anything you set your mind to; you are the captain of your ship and therefore your destiny; it’s up to you what you make of your life”. And I am finding it is working for me – that is, until another myth pops up and alters my attitude, making it quite difficult for me to move forward on my quest of self-promotion and success.
That myth goes something like this: “you are but a grain of sand in the whole terrain; what you do is subject to forces moving against you; in the greater scheme of things you are nothing”. This type of myth creates a mind-set that could stifle one’s growth, sense of adventure, risk-taking and possibly one’s belief in self.
However, instead of living my life with a ‘one-or-the-other’ approach, I have decided that, because deep-seated myths like these can’t be totally eradicated from the psyche, I am going to use them both appropriately at any given point in this journey.
There are times, I have found, when self-promotion is absolutely necessary in order to inform and build credibility around who you are and what you do. However, choosing a collaborative approach to what and how I do things, stemming from the belief that alone I can only do x, while together we can do x^2 plus more, has certainly proved to be very rewarding and satisfying for all involved.
Shifting the focus from competition to sharing can become an effective means to achieve one’s goals.
So, I maintain the myths we live our lives by are not mutually exclusive, they can work together, complementing each other in a way that gives our lives more meaning, purpose and satisfaction.