Human nature is driven by acquired and inherent flaws. We are often disheartened to see things going wrong in our lives due to these flaws. All we know and see is an imperfect life. The bigger picture, however, is often neglected. Interestingly, you can turn your situation around. All it requires is an unconventional and sagacious comprehension of our own flaws, that the greatest minds of the world have achieved. Every common man with flaws can change his life in two ways.
Knowing and accepting his flaws
Learning how to use them to his advantage
Acceptance leads to change
The first thing to know,is that every human being on Earth has flaws. Before anticipating any good changes in your life, you must accept this fact. There are no exceptions to this rule. As a matter of fact, Vedic scriptures describes that every human being possesses three traits. These are:
goodness, that inclines one towards good acts.
virility, that creates anxiety, greed, and a tendency to act and achieve endlessly.
darkness, that drives anger, laziness, jealousy etc.
The only difference is the amount in which these are present in someone. Only one quality dominates in every person. This combination decides his nature.
A person acts or behaves in a certain way, depending on his nature. His choices, ambitions, all are driven by his nature, which is in turn, driven by the above traits. So, we gather two noteworthy, aspects from this fact. One is that everyone does have flaws and good qualities in different amounts. Second, is that since everything in our life is driven by our nature, we can control our lives if we can control our natural instincts.Now, the question is how, exactly?
Understanding human nature
Once you accept that you have flaws, it easier to understand and identify them. It is an established fact that most of our decisions are influenced by emotions. These could be bias, anger, jealousy or groupism. Often they are not the most judicious decisions. Our life is a consequence of the decisions and choices we make. So, we obviously do put our life at risk by taking irrational, emotion-driven decisions.
Apply this to your own life, have you ever made a biased decision? It is because human nature forces us to first seek the information that supports our prejudices. We always want to establish what’s familiar to us rather than analyzing the real truth. This is termed as ‘Confirmation Bias’.
Consider another situation, where you wanted to believe something just because you had stronger emotions for it. Before you discover someone, you start trusting him, if you are highly attracted to him. Likewise, you may declare your child innocent, because you are emotionally attached to him when the truth is vague. This behavior is termed as ‘Conviction Bias’.
Appearances and favoritism for the group we belong to also influence our decisions.Deep Narcissism or self-absorption is another spoiler of our decision-making capabilities. It is not a shame to accept if someone does think extremely highly of himself. In fact, to some extent, all of us are narcissists. Deep Narcissism is a consequence of the situations we have faced, especially as a child. It could be due to extreme attention or high negligence from the parents. It is very natural to acquire narcissism in such situations. Narcissism generates the feeling of jealousy, makes the person a control freak and intolerable to criticism.It is not surprising to infer, that this does influence your life.
You must also not forget that humans are competitive by nature. This may extend to envy and covet in some. Reluctance to admit this feeling is only because people think it means admitting inferiority. We want to achieve what others have. Even though, later, it may or may not give us happiness. A global study has actually been made that 90% of the people who had everything, never felt happy. Nevertheless, we find it suitable to say that life progresses with desires. We want something, we set our goals and finally achieve them. While all of these feelings are natural, channeling them in the right direction is just as easy.
Overcoming Our Flaw
Anger, envy, bias or narcissism, all are known flaws and exist in everyone. Once we realize this fact, we can start observing dominating flaws in us. The first step towards correction is knowing the existence of problems. There is absolutely nothing that cannot be cured. Positivity, determination, and hopefulness must always remain in mind no matter how difficult a problem seems. All that a person must know is that nothing is permanent.
Now, that we do know that our decisions are affected by emotions, how do we prevent it. Batti, the younger brother and minister of Vikramaditya, the rulers of Ujjain, was a considerate and knowledgeable statesperson. It was because of his thoughtfulness, that Vikramaditya could continue being a righteous king.It is said that he very clearly knew about the flaws of human nature. He knew that emotions always lead to bad decisions and therefore bad outcomes. What he did to overcome this situation was, he always took more reaction time. Whenever a difficult situation came, he went home to think thoroughly, calmly and rationally. He considered the good of everyone from the decision. Only after considering all odds, would he stand on a decision. This is why, the outcomes were not biased for a few rich or dominating people.
Another interesting example my close relative, a successful businessman. He was from a very poor family, always neglected and beaten by his father. He was left in total abandonment. Usually, this generates hatred for the world and your own existence. The reason that led to his success was, that he developed the feeling of empathy. He started looking at his family as helpless and lost. He considered that their actions are driven by their bad upbringing. Instead of getting angry he felt pity for them. His intelligence provoked him to forgive his father. Ultimately, he started working on himself and coping up with his own situation. He found work for himself and the rest is history.
Manipulating Our Flaws
It is always a good sense, to use your flaws in the direction that can give you maximum benefit. An aggressive person in a sports profession can do wonders. He can channelize his energy and passion for physical workout. A Narcissist in a leadership role can be successful. This is because he is always passionate for perfection and can be a role model. This is a good way, to also, indirectly handle his ego and keep him satisfied.
It is highly important to note that our goals should not be acquired from someone else. Our work should be driven by our own likes, which we must be aware of. Taking the time to understand what we really want, what actually gives us happiness will lead us to the right path. This way we can touch skies and keep away from envy and covet.
Understanding yourself and then finding a remedy for your flaws might be challenging when the mind itself is not at peace. I earnestly hope to bring the enlightenment to your life via Winners Nest, so that you can work for a better tomorrow. Learn from me put forward the thoughts that you don’t already know or have lost track of.
