To Live an Amazing Life, Fall in Love with Doing the Right Thing
The longer you evade reality, the uglier the consequences morph
As a tiny crowd gathers and the trainer fires up the CCTV recording, my mind starts racing.
A few iffy seconds later, I walk up to him with a thumping heart, “Hey! I think while carrying the dumbbells,” and clear my parched throat, “I might have cracked the mirror. But let’s confirm with the footage.”
I had already known it had been me — but luckily, the footage made it look like I hadn’t noticed.
We settle the bill; I pay up, and the crowd disperses. I felt proud and ashamed at the same time.
I hadn’t done the wrong thing by scooting before the crack was detected. But I hadn’t done the 100% right thing either — which should have been owning up to it the moment the mirror-cracking happened.
You Cannot Escape the Consequences
In our causality-governed universe, every action has an effect and,
The longer you evade the reality of your actions, the uglier the consequences morph.
Let’s say I had silently slinked away the moment I veined the glass:
- Having lost face, I’d have to avoid the gym’s vicinity for years like a fugitive.
- Who knows for how long I’d be bad-mouthed by the gym staff in front of the others?
- Only a matter of time before they unearthed my address and came over to extract the payment.
- Internally, I’d feel like a sh*tty loser.
But had I admitted it right away?
No CCTV, no ruckus, a discount on the payment for my honesty, and a friendly pat on the back. See the night and day difference?
The quicker you own up to an action, the milder the consequences — but at the moment, it’s gut-wrenchingly hard to do.
Because our pleasure-loving brains that hate pain sweetly whisper, “You can escape this. Why subject yourself to discomfort?”
But if you fight that impulse and pick the hard (and right) choice, it will pan out with the best future consequences.
Deep Down, We Always Know What’s Right
You can lie about your innocence (or lack thereof) with your mother. It's possible to lie to your friend.
You can lie to the entire freaking world. But how long can you lie to yourself?
Even if you manage, how insidious is it to deceive yourself?
If you can’t even trust yourself, how will you trust anyone or anyone trust you?
We always know what’s right — but since the right choice is always the harder one, we brush it under the rug and cope with justifications.
The Act Matters More than The Outcome
Let me take you through a quick fable.
As John was walking his dog Nova, a jackrabbit bounded across. Pulling free of his leash, Nova got lost chasing the rabbit.
The next day, a pretty young woman named Maria brings Nova home. They hit it off right away and soon start dating.
A few weeks later, on the way to meet Maria, John’s car gets rammed by a truck.
Rushed to the ER, he doctors tell him he has a brain aneurysm. But turns out the aneurysm had always been there. The accident helped reveal it.
Do you see what’s happening?
The same act of Nova getting lost kept breeding different outcomes with time.
With the cause-effect chains being infinite, neither John nor we will know the “true” consequences of an incident or action.
So, the right act needn’t breed the right outcome, since there is no right outcome.
The only knowledge of good and bad we have is in the moment — the “right” action could breed ugly outcomes for decades and then suddenly turn into a lifesaver.
The “wrong” act could breed “good” outcomes for decades, and then its magnified consequences could smash the walls of your life.
Be it a wealthy gangster getting brutally assassinated or a kind and humble janitor hitting it big in the lottery, it’s pure karma at play.
Integrity Is the Highest Virtue
Every human being has an aura — while the spiritualists call it the soul’s expression, the woke realists call it the “vibe” or “charisma”.
Whatever you call it, your positive aura is a direct expression of your integrity.
The more aligned with that “deep inner voice” your actions and thoughts are, the deeper your integrity.
You cannot fake integrity — since what you do when no one’s watching determines it more than your public actions.
And evolution has wired us human beings to detect it — “He appears very genuine but there’s something off about him.”
Go against the grain to do the right thing. With time, you’ll fall in love with it and it’ll become second nature.
Whether or not the universe rewards your integrity doesn’t matter.
Because integrity itself is the reward.
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