the civil war within us

We wish to attain financial freedom and build a better future for ourselves and our family, yet we end up spending recklessly and take part in impulsive purchases. We say we want to find a better, well-paying job, yet we hardly look around and take any action. We desire to seek a loving partner for ourselves but we spend our time binge-watching Netflix and stay away from any events and social gatherings.

We want to make our lives better, yet we stop ourselves from moving forward. It’s akin to having opposing forces within us. As Martin Luther King Jr. points out in his autobiography, “… in every one of us, there’s a war going on. It’s a civil war. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care where you live, there is a civil war going on in your life. And every time you set out to be good, there’s something pulling on you, telling you to be evil.”

This war is mainly due to conflicting desires and a few blind spots in our vision and perception that lead us to poor judgments. The lack of clarity and prioritization that we experience due to them keeps this war going.

That’s why, it makes sense to slow down, take a pit stop and obtain alignment. As we figure out what we truly want and what we’re trying to achieve, we’ll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. We’ll able to pinpoint our inconsistent desires and wishes that don’t align with our core values and our goals and let go of them. With better clarity and by knowing what’s truly important to us, we’ll be able to stop working against ourselves and our success; we’ll able to end the war within and again get in touch with inner peace and tranquility.