The Knowing / Doing Gap

OK, so we've already established that we already know this stuff. There's no new information, just new ways of packaging what's already out there.

So why don't we do what we know?

If greater awareness = better choices, then shouldn't learning more make us more accountable and thus more happy?

We seem to stay in our state of cynicism and resignation so we can cling desperately to our need to be right, even at the expense of our own happiness and vitality. So many people - especially those who feel the need to call in to talk radio shows or write scathing letters to the editor - just don't realize that their opinion of the world is also telling the world who they really are.

It appears as though the cost of being cynical and resigned and upset and unhappy is not yet outweighing the perceived payoff for those who choose to continue the actions that keep proving them right - and unhappy.

But even as I write that I wonder whose view it is that calls that "unhappy." Perhaps it is me judging what I see and calling it "bad" or "wrong" ... if even in my own head.

As I start noticing those things/people/situations that I judge and change my own mind about judging them, then the world appears different to me and I don't have to be caught up in my own need to be right about what others are or are not doing.

So it's really true ... the only gap that occurs in the world between what ANYONE knows and does is the gap that occurs in MY world.

If ANYTHING really is to be, it truly IS up to me.

Somehow I think I already knew that.