Human beings, including you and me, are guilty of lying to ourselves about what is happening around us. We lie about the problems to make them seem less.
You have spotted a rat next to your home? Not a problem, just a random rat. One month later, a full rat infestation.
You felt that the boss was a little bit aggressive towards you at the meeting? No, it is fine; it is just something that I imagined. Boom, one month later, you are fired.
You have felt a really weird headache in the morning? It is going to go away. Headaches are common. Boom, hospitalised in 2 weeks.
If you think that you don’t do this to yourself, you are even worse off than the other people because in order to help yourself you need to accept and understand where your problem is before you can deal with it.
Effects of lying to yourself
I have been lying to myself for a long time because I feel that my job doesn't give me the full satisfaction that my hobbies or passions do. It pays well, and I am able to save up a large amount, but overall it is not even close to being what I want to do in life. In the end, I know that I am simply postponing a problem to a later day, and in the end, I would have to deal with it either way.
My interests and passions are very far off from what society calls normal or accepts easily, which is why it has always been hard to really open up about things. A simple strategy that always worked is just pretending to be normal. This is exactly the same as lying to yourself and in the end, would lead to burnout.
Effects of any of that would be both wasted time and escalation of the problem to extreme magnitudes. Sometimes pretending that the problem is not there hurts more people than doing the hard thing straight away.
In times of Covid, especially postponing going to the doctor with symptoms even by a single day can be the difference between living happily and suffering.
It can be tough to understand when and how you are postponing problems, but the next time you feel uncomfortable, don’t try to turn or run away. Try to look closer at what is happening and why. Overall your life will improve drastically if you do that.
Klim Y
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