Real habit change comes from taking a candid look at your shortcomings. Or, as Epictetus once said: “Self-scrutiny applied with kindness.”

It’s human nature to first experience and then explain.

It is extremely difficult to humbly admit a shortcoming instead of fabricating a tale to mitigate the blow.

Seek to understand, not to be right.

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school . . . it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.” — Henry David Thoreau