This is the part 2 of the “You are a hypocrite!” series. In part 1, we understood that every person is a hypocrite when it comes to matters that affect their own self. Their behavior in both the cases are very different. In this part, let’s explore why that happens.
Let’s consider a scenario where you are watching the iPhone 15 advertisement and your salary is 25000 INR a month, you have just received your 1st salary and you are 22 years old. The following goes through your mind:
Wow!! Just look at these iPhone camera samples! They look beautiful! How much does it cost? (You go to amazon and check the current price, it shows 1,00,000 80,000). Oh wow! 20,000 INR discount! Sweet. This is totally worth the money! But my salary is just 25000. How will I afford this😞? Wait a minute! EMI! Let me check how much is the EMI! 13333 INR for 6 months no cost EMI! This is a nice offer.
But is it a good purchase? It gives me such good photos, videos and performance, but is it really worth the price? I can’t really afford an iPhone.
Yes obviously it is worth the price! Along with all those features, it gives me something to flaunt. After all, iPhones are associated with status in India. How would it look like when all my friends are using an iPhone and I am the only one stuck with an android phone? Although I can’t afford the iPhone fully, but I will easily be able to afford the EMI. And anyways no cost EMI is a good thing right? I am not paying any extra charge for it. Okay I have decided to buy it.
These are the typical thoughts that go through our head when we are trying to make a decision for ourselves. Not necessarily everyone thinks in the same way in the above scenario, but we all think in the same way in some or the other scenario. In my opinion, this is what exactly happens in such scenarios. We don’t have one mind. We have 2. 1st one is the rational and logical mind, and 2nd is the irrational mind. This push-and-pull between the rational and irrational is what makes us uniquely human.
There is a constant tussle going on between your irrational and rational mind. In the above case, the rational mind comes into play when you think whether the iPhone is really worth the price? The irrational mind wins in this case. Often in such decisions, or a few other thoughts for that matter (like the example given at the beginning of the previous blog), we tend to let the irrational brain win. And that is completely natural. But sometimes this can affect us adversely.
Sometimes we let the irrational mind win to such an extent that we start rationalizing it. Like in the above example, although the rational mind knew that this purchase is not justified, we found a way to rationalize it by status symbol and no cost EMI. As famously quoted by James Harvey Robinson:
Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal
Let’s consider another example where the irrational brain wins over the rational. You are a musician and you get an opportunity to perform in an event called XYZ in Mumbai. This is a huge event, big stars and businessmen will come to watch you perform live. You are excited and book tickets to fly to Mumbai. You prepare really hard, you are totally ready for the big day. But as the day nears, your anxiety kicks in. Your fear that things might go wrong grows day by day. You invent excuses - work deadlines, sudden illnesse, even car trouble - to justify backing out. You end up cancelling your trip, missing out on the valuable opportunity you craved. You are guilty and disappointed. This can have long term effects on your career development.
This scenario is not uncommon. Fear of failure, social anxiety, etc. can often trigger the irrational mind to sabotage our goals and aspirations. So it is really important to keep your irrational mind in check, because if that goes out of control, it has the potential to ruin your life.
Now, having said that, it is important to understand that the irrational mind is not evil. It is as important as the rational mind. After all that is what makes us human. To deny either side of this spectrum is to deny the richness of our experience. The rational alone can leave us cold and calculating, while the irrational unchecked can lead us down paths of chaos and delusion.
The art of mastering your mind is to understand when to use the rational mind and when to let the irrational mind take control. There is no specific set of guidelines to this as each person is different, their choices are different, their situations, abilities and conditions are different. But it is the process that is more important than the choices we make. So, the next time you find yourself caught between a logical decision and an emotional urge, remember, it’s not a battle to be won, but a tango to be mastered.
So this was part 2 of the series “You are a hypocrite!”. Hope you enjoyed it and gained some value from it. In the next blog, we will explore a way of self introspection that I really love. But for that I will like to get a response from you on this survey. Filling this form won’t take much of your time, it consists of 5 really straight forward questions. So please keep in mind to fill this survey before watching the next blog whenever it comes out. There are some really interesting things coming up in the next one based on the survey. Stay tuned!