53 Guilt

Your mind works as follows:
You do NOT compare this o with this O to conclude one is larger than the other!
You absorb all of the o‘s you have ever seen, and overlay them to arrive at a composite-abstract-ideal. Most ‘o‘s are almost the same size because most ‘o‘s come from reading.
You compare each ‘o‘ with that composite-ideal in your head.
And then you say the first ‘o‘ is (let’s say) 1/2 the size of the one-in-your-head and the second one is 4x the size of the one-in-your-head. THEN you say the big ‘O‘ is 8 times the small one.

This is the source of guilt!
You have an abstract-ideal in-your-head for everything. Absolutely everything.
Think of an ideal /favorite meal. (play the game!)
Would you be alone?   … With others? (play the game!)
Would there be music?   … Flowers?   … What color? (play the game!)
Candles?  Shape?  Color? (play the game!)
See, you even have it down to the color /shape of the flowers /candles in your abstract meal!
Absolutely everything has an ideal-abstract in-your-head.

And the amount you deviate from that abstract = the amount of Guilt you feel.

My father did all his work and, on Fridays, would go to a movie.
His friend (at the next desk) would not. He said he felt guilty.
He thought he was getting paid for being at the office for 48 hours (in those days!) a week.
My father thought he was getting paid for doing the job whatever time it took.
Sooo when each compared taking a couple of hours off to their abstract-ideal-composite, one felt guilty and the other did not.

Review your composite-abstract-ideal. A fresh perspective could lessen or eliminate the guilt. (Don’t accept the ‘abstract’ that Guilt is ‘good’, now you know where it comes from!)

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These are related:

23 Become More Creative – 31 Being at-Cause – 48 Saying No – 55 Oxygen – 59 Hesitation

71 Nice – 86 Don’t Be Yourself! – 96 Habits – 99 Perfection!