It is commonly believed that most of our Life Stress comes from “not having all the right bits & pieces”. This is untrue.
The reality is that most of our stress comes from a lack of self-confidence in knowing where to put all the pieces we have at hand.
See to it that you treat repeating your own mistakes as unacceptable, rather than simply “regrettable”.
Try being quicker to evaluate, but slower to judge.
Why?
Evaluation is simply your personal responsibility to ascertain to what degree each stimulus you come across is consonant with your own unique value system. So naturally the faster you can evaluate the faster you can deliver the most appropriate response.
So far so good.
Judgment, on the other hand, is the privilege of attributing some measure of “rightness” or “wrongness”, “goodness” or “badness” to a thing, and as such should not be exercised hastily.
Give it a try. You’ll be pleased with the results.
What would you think if you met someone who had a billion dollars but was afraid to spend a penny of it?
“That makes no sense.”
Exactly. But how often do you come across someone – perhaps ever yourself at times – who has the capacity for sound judgment, yet lacks the confidence to exercise it.
Remember: There is no significant difference between a man who cannot read a good book and a man who will not.
It is the wise man who sees to it that his definition of “experience” encompasses a great deal more than simply a record of his mistakes.
As time is ticking along relentlessly, you are taking stock of what you’ve done right, what you’ve done wrong, and what your choices have both delivered and cost you thus far.
Here is a handy tip for figuring out the possibilities of where you want to go next:
Be very careful not to confuse REGRET over having made a Big Mistake (or two…or three….) with the FEAR of no longer having the freedom to make a Big Mistake.
Consider this deeply, and then forge ahead with confidence!
We are all taught to practise mental strategies such as “contingency planning” or “saving for a rainy day” or “thinking ahead”. And with good reason: they are eminently useful & practical.
But I think they ought to come with a proviso, because we all have an unfortunate tendency to neglect the present for the future.
And neglecting any “now” for any “then” is most unwise, for it is in our present that we initialize our futures.