Have you ever experienced a situation in which you expected a positive outcome, a positive change, as a result of a decision, but the actual result made you worse-off than you were before?
I'm talking especially about the sphere of self-help and personal development, but general decisions that bring great changes into your life.
My idea is that for some people, some "methods" might work, whereas for others the same methods might actually be detrimental - and you can realize it only after you tried. The same can probably be said for any wisdom or life philosophy.
An alternative question would be:
Have you experienced a positive result you expected, which was, however, accompanied by negative "side-effects"?
An example from my own life would be that I followed certain personal decisions I realized after thorough thinking to make one area of my life better - at the expense of another:
I used to feel charged by racism in certain environments as a teenager; however, after changing I become much more open and social also with people whom I thought to be racist.
The
drawback was that I became so social and involved with more people that I started lacking time for other things such as reading long novels or... playing videogames.
OK, maybe it sounds a bit silly. But what I'm saying is that if more and more opportunities arise, the less time you have to do all of them.
Perhaps the following statement will enrage some people but... what if I finally find the woman of my life... and then she starts taking away all the time and energy I used to devote to my friends, projects, businesses, and... videogames :P ?