One of the hardest people to be completely honest with is yourself. It is so much easier to fool yourself and remain ignorant than to actually own up to what is real. Fooling yourself is really easy to do and the preferred option for most people. The truth hurts and is often uncomfortable, which means that admitting what is real can be impossible for some people. Lying to yourself is the norm because it is easy and the path that requires the smallest amount of examination or change. Lying to yourself is essentially living in denial and this is what a lot of people choose. Admitting what is actually true is difficult and this results in a lot of people avoiding it.
How Can People Lie to Themselves?
People can lie to themselves in many different ways. One of the most common lies that people tell themselves is that some goals are unachievable. When people are having a difficult time reaching goal, they sometimes convince themselves that that goal is not realistic and not worth following. This is a harmful lie because it keeps them from pursuing something that is meaningful to them in someway. This type of lie makes it easier to quite because you convince yourself that no amount of effort or persistence would have paid off in the end, but this is not true. You never know what you can actually accomplish until you put in the effort. Laying to yourself in this way can keep you from striving for more.
Deep Denial
The thing about lying to yourself is that you get so deep into the lie that you no longer believe it to be a lie. You consider it to be the truth. This is when lying to yourself can be most damaging because it can change your entire perspective and everything that you believe in. When you are in denial it is impossible to think clearly. It is time for a whole new change of thought once you start down the path of denial.
Get Real
The only way that you can stop lying to yourself is if you are finally ready to admit the truth. This normally does not happen until you are confronted by the truth or forced to deal with reality in some way. Until then, you will simply just choose to live in denial and be oblivious.