Awareness. In the moment
Most of the time, we know right from wrong.
We know about most good habits and behaviours.
We also know about the things which influence us to make bad choices. Biases. Emotions. Ego. Etc etc.
So why do some people do the right things and some people don’t?
The key is to be aware of all these things in the moment. In that moment when you react or make a decision. That split second.
Even more so in those moments when you are full of emotions. Or influenced by a bias. And therefore more likely to do something that you will regret later.
Aware of how you are feeling. Aware of what choice you are making. Aware of what it might lead to.
If you have this awareness in those moments, you will more often than not make good choices.
Or even better, you will decide not to make a choice at all. Because you know that you are not in the right state of mind to make good objective choices. You will say nothing. Resist the temptation to react.
This awareness in the moment makes the difference between knowing and doing the right things.
Sounds like a simple thing.
But it’s impossibly hard.
There are very few people who can actually practise it consistently. Who always have the awareness in the moment.
They have a super power.
This superpower of having “in the moment awareness” stops them from making a lot of bad choices in life. And just by doing that, their life is completely transformed. Bad choices cause a lot of damage. All these moments of making good choices or abstaining from making a choice keep adding up and start compounding. In the end these aware people leave their less aware friends far behind.
These people are super humans quite literally.
One set of people who have done this really well. They are some of the world’s greatest investors. Will write in detail about that in a separate post.
P.s – Even as I have become aware of this. Found out that journaling and reflecting helps build this, I struggle to make progress on it. It’s that hard.
