ALL EPISODES

There are few easier ways to shoot yourself in the foot than to get hung up on what's fair. Bad people deserve bad things to happen to them, but the efforts we make to try to make them pay don't always serve us. Maybe someone wronged you, maybe they stole money from you and got away with it, but in our attempts to seek out justice, maybe we're just causing more harm to ourselves.

What in life deserves our time and attention and what things don't? I hope that as we consider that question, along with other topics on this show, that we can all learn to live our lives just a little more intentionally. This is Seth Roberts. Thanks for joining me on Skipping Stones - “We Are All Just a Little Delusional.” There have been a few times in my life where I found myself briefly thinking or believing something that upon further reflection was absolutely ridiculous

Sometimes the loudest person in the room is actually hiding in plain sight. I think everyone knows that person that walks in and kind of imposes their voice on the group. When you find yourself in a room with this person, you'll notice that pretty much all the talking being done is coming from that one person, and the conversation doesn't veer from where they want it to go.

I worry about having nice things sometimes. Not because I don't want them, but because I worry that I won't be able to stand living without them. Why is the pain of losing something so much greater and long lasting than the satisfaction we get from first acquiring a thing? The saddest thing about having nice things is that they become commonplace over time.

For some of us, it's hard to see our peers surpassing us in the world. We want to believe that none of our friends are superior to us in any way. So, we sometimes get into the bad habit of tearing down people that aspire for more than we do. For some reason, seeing our friends pass us up, threatens our egos.

To win at something is a concept that is really not that simple. In the context of a game or a battle, the idea is fairly clear. But in the grander scheme of things, winning a battle often doesn't win the war. And sometimes a battle won under the wrong circumstances, might even speed up the ultimate loss of a war.

Humanity is inherently gullible. We imagine ourselves to be these independently thinking entities when in reality we're so easily shaped by the people around us and by the people that know how gullible we actually are. Our pension for belief and what the people around us are saying makes sense. It keeps us safe.

You are not just you, but rather you are the culmination of hundreds of lives that came before you. Your past is more than just a short life that you've lived because of your past. It's also made up of all the pasts of the people that made you who you are, as well as all the past of the people that made them who they were.

Few things feel better than knowing you got a good deal on something. It's evidence of your superior negotiating abilities, but maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. What do we really get out of a bargain? I've lived in the world of business for years now, and I've tried to get good deals from vendors and many, many people