Consequences

People want liberties without consequences. They want to be:

• artists, but don’t want their work judged.
• athletes, but don’t want to lift weights.
• entrepreneurs, but don’t want the emotional stress.

We tend to exaggerate the worst parts of our current situation.

We think of what bothers us. What’s wrong. Why things aren’t right. Why do I feel this way, instead of that way? Why can’t I think clearly? Why isn’t my work good enough? Why don’t I feel good enough?

This is bad enough. But we also exaggerate the best parts of future situations.

If only I had this amount of money, then things would be great. If only I lived in this place, then I would be set. If only I had this relationship, then I would be happy.

By always wanting things out of reach and discrediting what we have, we are unknowingly damaging our psyche.

I keep coming back to my early thought:

Things are never as good, or as bad, as you make them out to be.

I keep coming back to the words of Seneca again and again:

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”