I have two built in compasses.
The problem is, I don’t like them. I don’t want these to be my compasses.
These compasses are called pain and pleasure.
There are many many situations where these compasses make me do things that I don’t ‘think’ is in my best interest.
For example, I smoke for pleasure. But smoking creates health issues that I don’t want. But as these health issues creep in slowly, my pain centers don’t catch it. So I smoke anyway.
Another example is my addiction to gaming. I spend a lot of time playing games. But it’s not just games. I waste a lot of time watching YouTube, scrolling through Facebook and other entertainment media.
It makes perfect sense in the light of my discovery of my built in compass: pleasure. Entertainment is pleasing. And the pain that results from not doing productive work usually remain in the distant future. So my pain receptors are immune to it.
As a result, my compasses guide me to more entertainment and less work.
Many other examples can be shown here to support my reason for not liking these compasses. Like me not engaging in social situations. Also me eating sugar or overeating etc.
I think these are good enough reasons for me to dislike my own built in compasses.
Just read a line in some quora post-
‘Growth comes from discomfort’
Somehow I intuitively feel like this sentence has answers to my recent dilemmas.
Is the answer that discomfort should be my new compass? Now that would be an odd compass to have.
Or is it that my compass should be growth? Now growth can easily become cancerous. So it has to be interweaved with rest/ destruction.
I guess I’ll let trial and error chose for me. Let’s see which compass provides more value.
RaihanRiad 