Stop lying to yourself!

in #philosophy8 years ago

Today's post is a short but powerful one.
I’m currently reading a book by James Altucher called ‘Choose yourself'.

He makes a point in one of the chapters about honest being the best policy.
I’m sure we’ve all heard that one before. But he went further into also being honest with ourselves.

None of us are perfect.

In fact, chances are, most of us are probably pretty mediocre.
There are of course excellent human specimens out there, the Elon Musk and Arianna Huffington's of the world, high achievers with extra ordinary skills and drive….
but as for the rest of us we need to accept that we’re most likely pretty mediocre.

...and that is totally fine! Because we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve been given.
Does accepting this mean we don’t strive for greatness? Of course not, but we should also be realistic so we’re not using the distance between our current place and this imagined ‘greatness’ as something that gets us down.

So here’s an important point from the book.
Say some one you know screws up somehow, wether a friend, your partner, a family member, whoever and you find yourself getting angry or annoyed. I’m sure you’ve felt this before.
Well, getting upset at someone for making a mistake, is actually a form of dishonesty.

That's because our mind lies to us to pretend that this shouldn’t happen, because we’re expecting them to be perfect. We think that we would never do that… because we’re perfect. And they shouldn’t do that, because they should aspire to perfection as well.

But this is a distortion of reality, and a really un compassionate thing to do. We all screw up and have our hangups to deal with. Because none of us are perfect, even if our ego likes to pretend it is.

So the next time you notice your mind trying to make you feel upset at someone else faults, remember that no-one is perfect and you're just lying to yourself. And instead practise acceptance and compassion in those moments.

I’ve definitely been dishonest with myself in the past, putting false expectations on other people and judging them if they didn’t meet those imagined standard. But now I know better 😃 and so do you.

Hope that was useful for you!
See you in the next one.

Much love x
Chris

Meditation Teacher / Nomad Entrepreneur / Creative
For more of me follow:
http://www.instagram.com/chrissoll
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Because none of us are perfect, even if our ego likes to pretend it is.

This is an important point. Great post!

Followed :)

Thank you! :)

Let me know your thoughts on the post and if you think you'll apply this knowledge :)

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