Interesting Idea on Human Behavior -- what's your take?

[einbert]

I'm currently reading <u>Self Esteem</u> by McKay and Fanning. [Here's the Amazon link in case you're interested.] So far I really like it and have found the first few chapters to contain a ton of excellent insights into, of course, self-esteem.

[ QUOTE ]
People with low self-esteem consider mistakes to be an indication of a general lack of worth. Each error reaffirms their underlying belief that something is terribly wrong with them. In chapter eight on "Handling Mistakes" you will explore one of the fundamental laws of human nature: that you always choose actions that seem most likely to meet your needs based on current awareness. You make the best decision you can at any point in time, given what you know and what you want.

[/ QUOTE ]
-page 53

I am mainly interested in the bolded text in the quoted passage above. I feel this statement is one of those that you could feel many ways about. Personally, it hit me as something that I've thought for a long time without ever putting it into words, or something that I have come to believe without even realizing it. Perhaps some people completely disagree with it.

I want to know how you feel about this statement. Is it true? Is it useful? Does everyone realize it?

I think that actively accepting this philosophy a long time ago might have made my life a lot easier. I can't count the number of times I have beat myself up over a decision, either in poker, a social situation, an academic situation, or anything else that turned out to look bad in hindsight. If I had seen things through the light of this statement, I could have looked at those "mistakes" very differently. I really like the statement and find it very comforting.

What human situations do you find this statement runs contradictory to? Do you believe most people believe in this statement actively, passively, or not at all? I really just want to know any thoughts you have about it.

There's no need to have any background knowledge except your own life experience to answer this question. I am as interested in outliers as I am in the general concensus, so don't hesitate to post what might be an unpopular viewpoint.

Thanks so much for reading my long post and I really can't wait to read your answer to my question.