The Achilles' Heel Trait

How to prioritise your mental-peace by forgiving others’ “shortcomings”.

Part of growing up is spending more time with yourself. One downstream effect of this is a higher sense of individuality and symbolically, a heightened selectivity in the type of people you want around yourself.

And, although the alignment between people is rising due to closer knit echo-chambers on the internet and broader acceptance of differing ideas - there’s always someone who’ll just hate the existence of, someone whose existence just irks you beyond comparison..and you don’t know why.

No human trait is original, all that we are is an inherited copy of our parents, the society we lived in, a social class we grew in, if lucky a rich heritage, some traditions that makes us a part of a broader family, and some tribe – nation, state, language, heroes, stories etc.

With all this randomness, and uniqueness in the levels and breadth of perception, it is very far-fetched to expect 100% alignment from people. Further futile is people deteriorating their relationships, expectations because of these mis-alignments.

Hence, below are the two axioms that have worked for me:

1. Internal peace should be the primary goal of our sustenance – it’s too important.
2. Everyone, including you, WILL have an Achilles’ heel trait about them.

The only way that I’ve found to live a peaceful life without letting the “obvious BS” of the world get to me is these two axioms.

True maturity is making allowances for others’ Achilles’ heel traits.

If you learn to discount the obvious Achilles’ heel trait of a person, you’ll find a great deal of freedom and joy in the company of most people. A complex being like the guy next you can’t just be shrugged off and equated to null-value because “you didn’t like the way they didn’t call you, after they said they would”, or “they talked bad about you behind your back” – your internal peace is too important for this.

There’ll always be some people who will find contentment is harbouring offence or just the opposite, malice for others – those people will never find the peace that they are looking for.

And lastly, the top tier greatness is making arrangements for your Achilles’ heel trait when dealing with other people. Consideration, afterall, is the highest form of love.

Hope you’ve a great one!

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