My pet defense is the idea of self-awareness. I know I have lots of opinions on stuff, and sometimes it can feel like I am always trying to convince myself and others I am right. I try to make that part of my life a little less taxing. I don’t try to be the one to convince you that you’re wrong just because you disagree with me.
My pet defense is the idea that you have to have self-awareness to not be a self-deceiving, self-sabotaging robot.
For me, self-awareness is not thinking and feeling, thinking and feeling. It’s being able to recognize that I’m the one who is wrong and take action accordingly. Self-awareness is the ability to stop yourself from telling yourself and others you’re wrong. Self-awareness makes you aware of who you are and what you’re doing.
Self-awareness is so hard to find. People who are really good at it often have difficulty with it. For example, I have trouble finding self-awareness in myself. I don’t know how to tell myself I am wrong when I do that. Because I can’t. So I have to go along with what the world tells me to do. I think this is why I’m so hesitant to speak up for myself. It doesn’t feel right.
Now, what I have learned from years of speaking up for myself is that I have to take responsibility for my actions. Self-awareness doesn’t just mean knowing what you’re doing wrong. It also means remembering when you’re wrong and when you’re right. You can’t always predict what your actions will be. They could be self-defeating.
In fact, I think we often get so caught up in our own thoughts and actions that we forget to take ourselves seriously. If you want to be taken seriously (or in this case, taken seriously enough to be taken seriously), you have to take responsibility for your actions. If you want to protect yourself from what the world says you are doing, you need to take responsibility for your actions.
In other words, we need to take responsibility for our actions, but not for our choices. This is why I have always stressed that we need to be clear with ourselves about our motives. It is always tempting to think that you will be punished for your actions, but that is only half the truth. When we are very clear about our motives, we are much less likely to act as if we are being punished.
Being clear about your motives is a very effective strategy when it comes to stopping ourselves from acting in certain ways. We can always protect ourselves from the world by saying, “I feel bad about doing that, but I will do it anyway.” By doing this, we are also saying, “I am taking responsibility for my actions and consequences.” In this way we are protecting us from the consequences of our actions.
I don’t want to do this, but I don’t want to do it because we are all on the same side. It just seems to be a form of the game that would make it easier to get away with the same kind of behavior.