That is what Bob called it.
You start arguing with yourself, in your head. Do this or do that? What is right and what is wrong?
Or you start having imaginary arguments you’ll never have with people you’ll never meet. That’s me. All the time.
Deadly.
It’s not to say that you will not face dilemmas. Of course you will. Life is filled with intractable dilemmas. And then you die.
Most dilemmas, however, are self-generated. Optional. Relatively inconsequential. They’re easy to resolve.
Three ways to stop the debating society in your head:
- Have some fucking principles. Don’t be a squishy moral relativist. “Don’t lie” is a good principle.
- Choose the harder path. Faced with uncertainty, pick the difficult alternative.
- Know that most choices are not fatal and are reversible. Give yourself permission to fail and reverse course. This just requires abandoning the feeling that everyone is looking at you and judging you. They aren’t. They’re thinking about themselves. 😀
- Stop talking to yourself in your head and start having a conversation with God in your head. Or out loud, I’d you feel like it. Break the doom loop.