This Is Your Greatest Weakness.

When it comes to pain and pleasure, humans are short-term thinkers. We have a natural aversion to pain, even if it’s good for us in the long-term. The opposite goes for pleasure. Whatever feels better now, that’s what we’re inclined to do.

This isn’t big news, we’ve known it all along.

It’s why we reach for the bag of chips instead of the salad sitting right in front of us… even though we know better. It’s why we procrastinate, why we skip class, and why we give up the goals most important to us.

And when it comes to those things, it’s easy to spot what we’re doing wrong. We know we shouldn’t procrastinate, or we should stop eating junk food because we can feel the guilt of our actions as we’re doing it. As much pleasure as it’s bringing us, it’s still causing us a bit of pain.

That’s why, eventually, we’ll stop eating those chips and we’ll get around to finishing that project. That little bit of pain builds up and up… until the pleasure no longer outweighs the pain.

But what if it never does? What if we have certain things we’re doing where the pain never outweighs the pleasure? Or at least not in a way we notice? What if it starts tearing down every other part of our life, but we don’t realize where the pain is coming from?

Your greatest weaknesses aren’t the ones that cause you pain, but the ones that bring you pleasure.

The narcissist’s greatest weakness is the pleasure he feels from admiring himself.

The ignorant individual’s greatest weakness is the pleasure he feels from not knowing.

The over spender’s greatest weakness is in the pleasure he finds from splurging on purchases.

The workaholic’s greatest weakness is the pleasure he gets from working compulsively.

The things we do that seem to bring us no pain are the ones we need to keep an eye on. It’s those actions that may be subtly tearing apart other areas of our lives without us even noticing.

Because the things we do that cause us pain, whether it’s through guilt or otherwise, we’ll get around to fixing.

We don’t revel in pain, only in pleasure.

But it’s our greatest pleasures that will end up bringing us the greatest pain.

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