'It's okay' is not okay!
How many times have you stopped yourself from achieving your highest potential, just out of the attitude of 'it's okay'?
'It's okay' are the words which can ruin your life! It's okay if I miss my tennis practice just today… it's okay if I have one more chocolate… it's okay if I cheat on her just this once… it's okay if I miss only one spiritual vow… and then finally, one day, anything is okay.
Don't think that you will directly start with big crimes! Loss of integrity always starts with a small 'It's okay'. Unconsciousness enters into your system only through small actions.
One of the great disciples of Sri Ramakrishna - Swami Brahmananda - asked a young monk to leave the monastery simply because of the unconscious way in which he was found peeling potatoes in the ashram kitchen! Sannyas (monastic life) requires the highest degree of integrity, because once you take sannyas, you become responsible for the whole world.
Even if you feel as if you are having your own way when you say 'It's okay', be aware: it is just a state of powerlessness. Not performing to your
maximum is certainly not power! And never trust the decisions that you make when you are feeling powerless. While you are feeling powerless, you can cause irreparable damage to you, which takes years to repair, and even the will to repair can disappear.
'It's okay' is the termite which will eat away your integrity and destroy you without even you knowing about it. After some time, this attitude will settle in you and you will even forget that you are living in non-integrity. The power of inauthenticity is such after two days it makes you forget you are inauthentic. Remembering it is very painful; that is why you forget so easily.
Never think that a little inauthenticity is okay! You usually keep a little inauthenticity in reserve, justifying to yourself that you will use it ONLY in any extreme situation, when you have no other choice. That is like storing a little poison in a corner of your house, because you may need it after two years or five years!
No! Declare clearly now that you will not allow 'it's okay' to destroy your possibilities. Post-mortem is of no use to your life! Do future-mortem; throw out the 'It's okay' attitude from your inner space before it destroys you.
Next time you find yourself saying, 'It's okay', catch yourself – which incompletion is awakening inside you?
Whenever you feel the pattern of 'it's okay' rising in you, simply respond with 'it is NOT okay'! Every time you choose 'it is NOT okay', you become more and more authentic. Authenticity stabilizes your being.