"Radical Self Inquiry"*

“Process by which self-deception becomes so skillfully and compassionately exposed that there’s no mask that can hide us anymore.” (audio)

I find in these words a powerful truth. If you really sit down and think about them, and how they apply to you, they will bring up some scary thoughts. Why would we need to hide? From who?

“My lie was ‘that if I made enough money’, then if the people I fear won't love me, would love me forever. That was my self-deception.”

Coming from someone that has been extremely successful (Jerry Colona) makes the statement more powerful. At the same time, it makes it completely reasonable and rational. Your own self-deception drives you to make things and pursue paths that they can maybe get to success. But would you ever stop hiding? lying. There would be a never-ending pursuit of your own self-deception. It will never fulfill you.

“What’s yours? (self-deception). How do you drive inwards to understand what is truly motivating you?”

I tried to think about this in the morning. I came up with two motivations, that I don't know if they are or should be the rights ones. Or if they even are the right motivation.

I will called them ‘Personal achievement’ and ‘Show my father’.

The first one comes from a concept of self-competition against myself. I have always thought that you don't compete against others but you benchmark yourself to see if you are competitive. IMHO you can't compete against others because each of us is unique human beings. Your company can compete, your team can compete, but not you in a one-one form. My self-deception is that I need to show myself that I can be competitive even if I'm surrounded by the most intelligent and smart people. Do I actually need to show myself this? Is it necessary?

My second self-deception is that I need to build my own company to show my father that I can do it too. He worked hard and show me what anyone can accomplish with hard work. The question is if I really need to do this for him or for me?

“What is yours?”

As Jerry Colona mentioned this is a process. So the exposure of self-deception should be done periodically so we can understand what is going inside ourselves and what drives us to do what we do.

PS: Thanks to @Fredwilson who shared this video in his morning email.

PS2: Hope you find this post helpful. If you did please share it with others and hit the Recommend button. Also, tell me on Twitter, I’m @JDcarlu