The ground state of self-deception is the inability to be truthful with yourself.
Self-deception, key points:
Self-deception is living in an alternate and often distorted reality that we conjure up on a daily basis to maintain our sense of personal safety.?
It is very protective and works as a form of self-preservation.?
It keeps you from actively embracing and accepting information that you don’t want to admit or acknowledge, simply because it’s too hard or too painful, or it’s something you don’t want to be true.
Sometimes this happens because knowingly (and possibly publicly) revealing that we were wrong is too much, and we will hold on to falsehoods to save face.
And so in these ways, self-deception is all the things that you just can’t quite acknowledge, but that doesn’t magically transform unreality into reality, or the lies you tell yourself into the truth.
Why should you care if you lie to yourself? I mean, after all, some studies show that bloating up your self-image and projecting that out into the public world can really pay off, bigly. Right?
Exaggerating your accomplishments, putting a little spin on the facts, bulwarking what your audience wants to believe to be true (even though you know it isn't true), that's mostly okay with many people...especially in the realm of protecting your sources of income.
And if somebody dares to call you on any of your self-deceit that you spew into the marketplace, well, who cares? Right?
Ironically, if you find out someone is telling you a lie they think is true and refuses to be interested in knowing anything about why it isn't true, you are going to usually end up butting heads.
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But when it comes to the marketplace, even a stone-cold self-deceiver is going to be super teed-off when they find out they have been misled. Nobody likes to be on the end of a purposeful swindle.
Here is the loud skinny about all this stuff: When you self-swindle, it keeps you at a disadvantage in the marketplace.
Those "fishing stories" can come back to bite you. Losing the confidence of the small circle who live with you, work with you...really sucks. And when you smack down the impact of people in the vast marketplace finding out that you project your loose relationship with the truth onto them, it ain't a wonderful moment.
Sure, you can ride it out. Do some repair work. Or go all KGB and do the "fake news" thing, and "what aboutism", blame your detractors, marshall the best defenders you can find to lash back at the evil ones who dare to slight your reputation.
We have all seen how this actually keeps the lies believed and healthy and spreading within the people who are down with what I can kindly call "a lack of critical thinking" and less politely "willful ignorance".
To get a lot more fun in your life:
Do you recognize you are a self-deceiver and you want a way out?
Here is a great song that explains the entire dilemma to you: