We all want to make good choices—the correct selection, the most righteous decision.
However, our impulsive, mammalian brains like to get in the way and muck it up: rather than relying on reason, data, and facts, we seek to validate our bad decisions via any-means-necessary justification.
One of the worst is Because I deserve it!
Unfortunately, we’ve gotten good at using this excuse to push aside logic to give grounds for our screw-ups—and this sense of entitlement is a slippery slope.
Sometimes the excuse is benign (initially): After my long day, I deserve an ice cream cone! Sure, most of us won’t experience negative effects from a single dessert. However, this is quickly torpedoed when one turns into two, two turns into four, four turns into eight, etc. After all, if you deserve one treat, why not more? Why not every day?
Even if you deserve it, even if the decision seems like the right one, there’re myriad good reasons—rationales based on sound reason, logical thought, or personal intuition—to ensure it’s the right decision; Because I deserve it! is never one of them.
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