If I had to pick the one thing that I am happiest to see in someone who is seeking to change, it would have to be insight.
All the motivation, all the money, all the positivity, all the discipline, all the perseverance, all the right answers – none of these mean anything without insight, because insight is the starting point for any kind of serious evolution in a person’s life.
It might seem as like someone wouldn’t even seek change without insight, but this is often not the case. Some people have a vague idea that something is wrong, but they are convinced it’s not them. It’s the people around them, society’s views on something, fate always working against them, whatever.
Insight is like trust, in that you have to have a little bit in the first place to start developing it at all.
I can think of a few people in my life who operate with almost zero insight, and their lives consist of one crisis after another. It is difficult for them, because they stay stuck in the cycle of choices and behaviors. This makes sense. Without insight, nothing is within our control or power. If everyone else is to blame, how can changing what we do affect anything?
I feel for them, because I do not know that the lack of insight is necessarily their own doing. It’s also tough because sometimes things really aren’t our fault, but without insight we really cannot choose our response to these things. It’s a nasty cycle to be caught in.
Would you say you have good insight into the things you do that bring suffering into your life, or do you find yourself frequently blaming external circumstances for the things that go wrong?
What would it look like to cultivate a deeper insight?
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