Today I was fixing the bathtub faucets that had been leaking for months and was remained of one of my particularly bad bad habits. Some water was leaking out of the hot water handle so I went back outside, turned off the water, came back inside, took apart the hot water handle, tightened something, went back outside to turn on the water, and then tested it once more.
Less water was leaking at that point but it was still leaking. But I tried to convince myself otherwise. I was wore out, tired of going back and forth to the water supply, and had other things to do. I almost convinced myself that I’d fixed the problem and that what I was seeing was just water left over from when it really was leaking. Fortunately I know I like to play this trick on myself so I look out for it and caught myself. I took everything back apart multiple times to get it right and in the end, after many trips in and out, I got it fixed.
I find myself most susceptible to tricking myself when I’m tired. I feel like I barely have the energy to do anything and want any excuse to stop. And then bad things happen. Like when I convinced myself that I didn’t need that seal on my car’s transmission that I was replacing the day before driving from Dallas to Fort Hood. By the time I got down there every gear but 4th had ground into oblivion.
I’m sure there are plenty more examples but none come to mind at the moment. I feel the temptation quite often though. It usually starts with downplaying the issue and ends when I fight through and do it the right way anyway.