Of the terms that describe man's difficulty, the term "self-defeating" is perhaps the most pertinent. The aim of all great teachers was to awaken men and women to their self-defeating behavior. People say they want to grow up, assume life's responsibilities, but most of the time what they really want is to remain a child. They are not willing to change. Instead they give reasons or execuses as to why they can't be, do or have what they want. The way out of this is to start by eliminating execuses.
If we believe that someone or something outside of ourself is the cause of our probleem, we will always look outside of ourselves for the solution. In order to find the answers to our needs, however, we must begin by looking at ourselves in a new way. The outer world is in many ways a reproduction of our inner world. Realize this. How many troubled people do you know who have not given the slightest attention to this fact? No amount of determination, no amount of willpower, inspiration or motivation will slove our problems, if we look outside of ourselves for the answer.
