Once it’s broken, you can’t un-break it
These days, I am reading an extraordinary book named Way of the peaceful warrior, by Dan Millman.
It’s my favorite kind of book: the one which lead me through breakthroughs all along the read as well as practical lessons that I usually start to apply right away.
“It’s better to make a mistake with the full force of your being than to timidly avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit. Responsibility means recognizing both pleasure and price, action and consequence, then making a choice.”
— Dan Millman.
The mistake itself doesn’t matter then. What matters is your attitude towards that mistake. What matters is to be responsible, and to choose the pain which comes with the pleasure.
This can be applied to anything in our life, whether it’s something we do or something that happen to us. Once it happened, it happened. That’s why the one and only matter is how we react afterward.
This is typically the choice we have when we’re on a diet, and fail someday by eating a huge burger when we should have eaten veggies and beans.
- The first and most common reaction is to regret afterwards, and blame ourself for what we just did, bringing a lot of dark thoughts and guilt in the end.
- The second option is to say: “ok, I ate this gigantic burger, and it was against my own rules. Anyway, it was fucking delicious! Now, let’s get back on the right.”
Guess in which case we are more likely to give up on the diet and complain because it was too hard a few days after?
Once the damn burger is eaten, it’s too late to change it. The rule has been broken, and it can’t be “unbroken”. It can only be followed with more discipline from now on.
I used to blame myself a lot for what I was doing wrong (or what I was scared of doing wrong), and it was an insane pressure to sustain. I recognize now how important it is to forgive and move on as quick as possible. It remove 90% of the anxiety one can feel on a daily basis.
Learning, progress and growth come from self awareness,
not from self deprecation.
Let’s remember this: when we break a rule, we have to keep in mind both the price and the pleasure.
PLEASE, hit the 💚 below if you liked this story! It encourages me and help other people discovering it.
If you don’t do it already, please feel free to follow The Diary now to get the next articles.
