Shame, embarrassment, regret, being disappointed with oneself, not being honest and unable to keep up the promises that you made creates a storm of stress in the brain which is painful and miserable. Our brain don’t want to live and stay in this guilty condition so in order to feel better and feel happier in that moment we get distracted. We want to distract ourselves by depending and moving on to external sources. Meaning you will get into consuming mode and spending mode. You may distract yourself by buying things consuming food, browsing, watching videos, gossiping etc., To simply put we distract ourselves by indulging in activities and things that gives us instant pleasure and jolt of high.
While making choices and taking decisions you always have the easy option and the hard option. The easy option is to normalise the event by ignoring it and getting distracted and then indulge oneself in instant gratification and pleasure. The other option is the hard stuff which is selfie valuation and self assessment.
If you keep breaking promises, procrastinating, not living up to your full potential, not doing meaningful interesting work then it is like building a pile of stinking shit day by day. So the more crap that you build inside you the more vulnerable and impulsive you would become. You would unknowing become a victim of external forces that are trying and looking out for your weakness and insurities. You immediately fall for any suggesting that makes you feel better for the moment and give into any product marketing that gives a false sense of important. Many times we also give into our instinct of owing material things to make us look better and elevate our external status. Unfortunately other people always look at things we own and admire them and do not care about the people who own them.
The more internal imbalance and incongruence you have the more vulnerable you would become for the external vices. The more guilt and shame you add up internally the more you seek the validation from outside world. You turn your eye on money, control, pleasure or fame to add value to your persona instead of building a persona that attracts money, power and respect.
Do read the Disclaimer