“Circumstances are what deceive us – you must be discerning in them. We embrace evil before good. We desire the opposite of what we once desired. Our prayers are at war with our prayers, our plans with our plans.” Seneca, Moral Letters.

We experience contradictions in ourselves when we are not certain or clear about our values and what we really want. These challenging moments can often arise when time plays a factor – have pleasure now and worry about the pain that might come along later. We see what we want to see.

Without clarity of purpose – that long-term goal that more-often-than-not seems distant and abstract – we fall victim to short-term choices, often prodded by emotions rather than logic. For example, the urge to stay at home, warm and snug, when really a short walk in the cold winter air would do us the world of good.