Cognitive Dissonance Right Now

          Cognitive Dissonance is a very simple thing to understand, it is a time in thought, when planning or making a decision, where there is an inharmonious confrontation between what you know you should be doing and what you are actually going to do at that moment.  This cognitive dissonance affects your decision making based on the reward that would come of this decision.  If the reward is going to be small it better be easy to obtain in a short time, such as when you choose sleep over attending class because it is so easy and you rationalize your bad decision to skip class because there is very minimal (unless however you skip class a lot then thats a whole other problem involving cognitive dissonance) long term affects of this decision.  It is harder to see the long term benefits of attending class and doing well in 20 years because of getting a college education when your laying in bed hung over and just want your head resting on a pillow.

          Recently, I have stopped eating red meat and poultry.  I still eat fish and dairy but, making the choice to stop eating meat has helped me become stronger at balancing my dissonance.  I work for a catering company and i am around delectable gourmet meals al day with filet mignon, prime rib, pork chops, all tempting me, and I make the conscious decision not to eat them.  I get real hungry sometimes, but the have some awesome mac and cheese that i enjoy so much.  I did it to honestly see if i could.  To see if I could do something JUST to see if I could do,  Its been three weeks now and I'm going to see how long i can go.  But i've ben great so far, its not bad eating tuna steaks and shrimp and crab cakes all the time.  But cognitive dissonance can be beaten if you let your mind and your pride and your true honest feelings guide you through life.  Just try to resist temptations and do what you know is right for you and stay strong and positive and YOU WILL FLOURISH.