Many of our challenges and problems are created by ourselves. We know better than doing something, our inner voice tells us, yet we go ahead and do things, only to pay a price later on in life. We feel we can cheat life and get away with the consequences. But the cause-effect principle of life is unchanging. We will do ourselves a service if we were to adopt a simple principle in life – if it is not right, don’t do it.

Temptations often get the better of us. We know the foods we should avoid, yet the desire for taste overpowers the conviction for good health. Habits we know we should avoid, pull us away from our discriminative self. Our desires drive us to do what is not right.

Comparisons can shake our foundation making us do things not meant for us. If we compare to learn and reflect, we will grow. But if comparison with others becomes our living paradigm, we will always live with a sense of dissatisfaction, because there is always someone we know who looks happier, more prosperous, and more successful than us. Our ego drives us to do what is not right.

When things are going well and we are on a high, we often forget what the lows of life were like. The mind gets attached to good times and before we know it, we make decisions that come back to hurt us because we were no longer grounded. We succumb to our arrogance and overconfidence and end up doing things we shouldn’t.

There is a cost in doing the right things, but there is a greater cost to be paid in the long term for doing what is not right. Even though we know this, we are not willing to go through short-term pain in order to create long-term value for ourselves. We take the easy way, even though we know it is not the right way. We succumb to convenience.

But we need not succumb to our desires, ego, arrogance, overconfidence, and convenience. There is a simple way to build fortitude and protect ourselves from our own actions. Learning to succumb to our inner voice.

( Picture – Lake Geneva and Montreux, as seen from Caux )