Mental Prisons

“If you’re so smart, why aren’t you happy?”

Well, that’s a big question! It’s hard to be happy when you’re smart because a lot of gray areas get in the way. But we chase it anyway.

The Michael Jackson song got it right:

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could've been any clearer
If they wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change

Social media—and I’d say Twitter, in particular—has exacerbated people’s need to feel like they’re right. This behavior comes in the form of “dunking,” or responding to someone’s social media post in a self-righteous and sarcastic way, usually in a drive-by comment.

Rather than look inward, they just look everywhere else for something to be upset about.

The more I read about something, the more I notice it in the world. If I read an article about men wearing yoga pants, I start noticing men wearing yoga pants. (That’s not a real example and I certainly hope that’s not “a thing.”)

It’s all about exposure. Exposure breeds attention.

I’ve found that in my worst times of despair, he’s right there whispering in my ear, making it just a little bit easier to do more harm.

Whereas God eases our burdens, The Devil amortizes negativity. He helps turn a major debt into monthly payments. When I think I should say “no,” he’s there to say, “Hey! Why not? You deserve this!” And then I go on and make a bad decision: eating that dessert when I’m already so full from dinner; watching that movie that’s uncomfortably racy; or engaging in unwholesome conversation.

In my mental prison, I ate more than my share of turd sandwiches. Perhaps you can relate. There are a lot of flavors of turds. Let’s discuss!

The greatest lie The Devil ever told was that he doesn’t exist. But where there’s evil, there’s The Devil.

What does it take to find inner peace? I’m not sure, but you sure can’t find it if you’re too busy!

Bucket lists should be called “Stuff I’ll never do and will cause me to look back on my life with regret.” Better to get rid of the bucket list altogether or make a plan for crossing the items off.

Even when it comes to our most cherished beliefs, we are ready to bail when it gets inconvenient.

Everybody’s working for the weekend! Everybody’s got a case of the Mondays! Everyone’s in a mental prison!

Happy Monday!

What do we do when we receive a serious compliment from a heavy hitter who knows what they’re talking about? Why, we go into existential crisis, of course!

Am I good at my job? Or am I just good at tricking people into believing I’m good at my job?

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio rocked my world when he wrote, “We aren’t thinking machines. We’re feeling machines that think.” The implications of this hypothesis are rather huge: we decide emotionally and rationalize retrospectively.

And to think I thought I was a rational, clear thinker!

My fourth book, Mental Prisons, is a book about self-limiting beliefs and the idea that we are in a prison of our own making. This comic illustrates the point with a visual metaphor of a person holding prison bars that aren’t attached to an actual prison.

A mental prison is a self-limiting belief that has no basis in reality, but we believe it anyway. And it persists for a long time because we hold tight to it.

Eventually we train ourselves to love the prison and to want to keep it. Sounds crazy, but we do it anyway.