Much of what I write here in this blog seems pretty obvious after I’ve written it. To the point where I often feel silly even saying it. I imagine others reading it and thinking, “how could you not have already realized that?”
And yet I believe it’s absolutely critical that I keep going. Maybe even more so for things that may seem obvious.
If I didn’t write about it, I may not ever figure it out. And then I would be stuck not realizing or understanding something that many deem ‘obvious’.
Presumably, that’s what most people do.
And it just makes me think… How much progress and personal development are people missing out on simply because they are too afraid to confront something that they should have known?
I’ve said before that I think most people have a tendency to be far more motivated to avoid bad feelings than to seek good ones. It’s a good recipe for getting into a comfortable situation, but not one of growth.
Self-reflection can be painful, including times when you have a revelation that makes you feel guilty or ashamed for not having it earlier.
An easy way to avoid that is to not have any revelations. To simply ignore avoid serious self-reflection of any kind and build a protective wall around yourself so that you never have to be confronted with your own inadequacies.
So even if my thoughts might not seem that novel to others, or if I feel guilty or ashamed for not having figured something out sooner, that’s okay. It’s still important progress.
After all: better late than never!
The only way to completely avoid feeling ashamed for not figuring out something sooner is to never figure it out at all. And I think people go out of there way to do just that.