What stories do we tell ourselves?

So I'm on to the next book in my sudden thirst for stories related to the N.Korea regime (such sadistic inhumane practices I would say).

It is titled 'In Order To Live - A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom', which you can find in most bookstores among their bestsellers list. I came across a quote, that disrupted my train of thought for the past couple of days, as it lingered on my mind and started to do some soul searching.

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
- Joan Didion

It can be interpreted in many ways, however, I would like to focus on the aspect of stories or excuses we tell ourselves whenever we face obstacles. We shall concentrate on the world of Finance, since it is something that is very close to my heart.

When the topic of investing comes to our mind, we tend to come up with stories that say (and by stories I mean that there are much more content than just the one written here, I like to keep things simple, but we know that behind every conclusion/sentence is actually a series of thoughts that led to it)
- 'It is too risky'
- 'It is too difficult'
- 'So and so lost alot, I better not touch it in case...'
- 'So and so did trading and made alot of money overnight, it seems so easy, I will try too'

There are countless stories that we entertain ourselves with when the topic is mentioned. The question is
- Are we aware of these inhibiting thoughts? Or reckless thoughts that we will subsequently use to justify the risky practices? Like leveraging, etc

Our world is made comfortable by us coming up with stories to feed our brain on the decision we made. But many a times, we might fail to see the topic from another person's perspective. It will be great if we can strive to see and sieve out the thoughts of successful people in that field.

Just a quick word on the part of trading and making lots of money. I had a former colleague who mentioned that his uni schoolmate, who received a scholarship, and hence a relatively large sum of money, threw it into crypto. Made money at first, but eventually lost it all back and even that sum of money. All these happened in less than a year I reckoned. I am amazed at people who can lose such a large amount (in my opinion, as every cent counts).

So reminder of the day is that we must always be aware of the stories we tell ourselves in order to justify that decision made so that we can 'close the chapter' and continue to live. It is not just enough to be aware of it but also find ways to see if it needs any refinement. It can be applied to any area of thought.

This quote will forever remain one of my favourite and something that I will constantly ponder on from time to time. Such is its impact.