Think about your "giants." Giants are people who have had the greatest impact on your life, who came along at a time when you needed to hear or experience something and told you about or led you to exactly what it was.
Each middle-aged or mature life usually has about four or five giants. If there are significantly fewer than that, you may not be acknowledging how others have influenced you. In that case, try to think back to times when you know you changed. Who was in your life then? How did you form your views? Who influenced you?
Now consider whether you have transcended your giants, if you have gone beyond what you learned from them to forge a way of life that is completely and uniquely your own. See if you can actually imagine yourself disagreeing with one of your giants, even though at a certain point in your life you hung on every word he or she uttered.
Make finding new giants that are appropriate at this point in your life a goal.
— Alan Epstein in How to Be Happier Day by Day