During the early phase of your life one has a lot of built up confidence and holds a high perception about themselves. But soon, as more experience comes in, the high standard one holds, shifts a little. As you realize things don’t go the way you thought they would go - a very basic and common example would be long term thinking.
While I have always been a preacher of long term thinking and try to incorporate it in my decision making, it is not as easy as simply saying “just look at the long term benefit”.
Even when we recognize something as beneficial in the long run, we may choose differently for various reasons. Some of these reasons, while short-term in nature, might be entirely rational in the specific context of the situation.
It is easy to give gyaan without experiencing something first hand, as one is unaware of the mental challenges that might come along the way. On paper you might be prepared but reality can get overwhelming and your biases might take over.
The error 404, where you are clueless, happens when one is not prepared for it as something unexpected takes place, and when there is a series of such events back to back it can be overwhelming.
“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight.
This is where the quote comes in. Until we experience a similar situation, it’s very difficult to understand people’s actions. Without the experience, it is easy to refer to someone as a villain. Once you are walking in the shoes of the villain it reveals to you their perspective. While those actions might not align with a long term view from a narrow perspective, experiencing the same provides the rationale behind the action for choosing the short term benefit.
The challenge we can refer to is Boxes in Life.
This was an essay I had written a few years back where I mentioned that one can handle only a limited amount of things at a time. If you try to cross that limit, eventually it will lead to breakdown.
Some might argue that one has to sail through such a phase, especially relationships, where multiple things come their way at same time for longer term benefits. But one has to see from the perspective from which phase you are currently in your life. If you are starting out your career, there will be plenty of new things that will come across your path, there will struggle to understand things, late working hours, necessary clerical work, etc. If at this stage you try to bring in another Box in Life where you are experiencing new things and learning to deal with situations, the probability of breakdown increases substantially.
This is where one makes a choice on deciding which box holds priority in life. If you mess up in your foundation years, the rest of the following years could be a struggle.