Using reason to avoid uncomfortable emotions.
We intellectualize all of the time. We hear sound principles for leading a happy life but dismiss them.
“I can’t do that. It wouldn’t work with my life.”
We don’t take the time to reconcile it’s conflict with the current state of our life and do the most difficult part: enact change.
Occasionally, we choose to act but fail anyway. It’s at this point that we gain an even greater understanding of the principle. Only by attempting to apply it and succeeding or failing do we start to true understand what a principle looks like in application.
There’s potential in theory, but power in application.