The Insanity Paradox: Why "Insanity" Is the Only Way to Change Our Life

"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." — Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1842) [1.1]

"To return to the root is to find peace. To find peace is to fulfil one’s destiny. To fulfill one’s destiny is to become constant. To know the constant is called insight. Not knowing this cycle leads to eternal disaster." — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

While listening to an audiobook of the Tao Te Ching—a text brimming with pearls of wisdom from thousands of years ago—I began reflecting on how one of the ideas in the text that moved me deeply. It brought to mind a famous line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1842 poem, Locksley Hall: "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." [1.1]

This captures a bittersweet, universal truth about human nature:

1. "Knowledge comes..." Knowledge is information that moves fast. We learn from the world ideas, facts, data, science, and technology. In modern society we have access to the education system, books, libraries, internet, training and career and personal development. These are incredibly efficient at helping us discover new things and advancing technically. Knowledge comes and goes.
2. "...but wisdom lingers." Wisdom is internal insight. It moves painfully slowly. It is the deliberate ability to understand why ideas, facts and information matter and how to apply them to life with judgment, ethics, and balance. While knowledge arrives on a whim and leaves quickly, wisdom takes a lifetime of personal mistakes, experience, and deep reflection to arrive but then anchors in our minds.

Tennyson was issuing a stark warning: A society can easily become smart without ever becoming wise.

We can possess all the information in the world, yet still make destructive choices if we lack the internal insight to foresee long-term consequences. Knowledge is the information we hold; wisdom is the person we actively strive to become.

Look at us today. We have a vast, unprecedented wealth of information available on trauma, healing, and medicine. Yet, we know from Dr Eurich that 95% of people believe they are self-aware, while only 10–15% actually are. Furthermore, Dr Kahneman found that 95% of us default to putting our brains on autopilot, entirely failing to consciously direct our lives. We are swimming in knowledge, but starving for wisdom.

The 2,400-Year-Old Wisdom: To Know the Constant Is Called Insight

As I continued listening to the Tao Te Ching, a specific passage struck me with immense force:

“To return to the root is to find peace. To find peace is to fulfil one’s destiny. To fulfil one’s destiny is to become constant. To know the constant is called insight. Not knowing this cycle leads to eternal disaster. Knowing the constant gives perspective. This perspective is impartial. Impartiality is the highest nobility...”

I was amazed by how clear, concise, and sharply directional the language is. It states, without qualification, that to know the constant is called insight, and not knowing it leads to eternal disaster.

This is the most profound thought on success I have ever encountered.

We have all heard standard self-help advice linking success to habits, discipline, and routine. But this text does something completely unique: it defines "insight" purely as knowing the constant.

I stopped and asked myself: Do I know the constant?

The honest answer was no. I have good habits I try to maintain, bad habits I try to remedy, and new routines I constantly try to adopt to build my future. Yet, after a while, I always find myself faltering, lapsing, and stumbling.

If I truly possessed insight, I would have maintained the constant. Therefore, the exact degree to which I fail to remain constant is the exact degree to which I lack insight. Consistency isn't just a habit; it is the ultimate litmus test for recognising if we have insight or not, full stop!

When the text adds, "Not knowing this cycle leads to eternal disaster," the stakes could not be higher. I thought, given how critical this is, how come our education system, society and our parents failed to make this a top priority during our development, like how we were all taught and expected to brush our teeth everyday. Arguably, learning this wisdom was more important. Without consistency, we aren't just missing our goals; we are on the precipice of sabotaging our entire potential.

Insanity is Credit & Debit: Why Einstein Was Half Right

Whenever I lack wisdom in an area despite having massive amounts of knowledge, it signals a major blind spot. I am failing to see the forest for the trees.

I sat back and monitored my inner being: What feeling actually comes to mind when I think about consistency?

Honestly? I felt a sense of déjà vu—an endless, grey repetition. It didn't sound fun. Repetition, when weaponised, is literally used as a form of psychological torture (like playing the same song on a loop until a prisoner breaks). In my heart and soul, I realised that I subconsciously viewed consistency as a prison sentence—like being forced to watch the exact same movie every single day, turning myself into a robot. I prioritised variety and change because they bring immediate excitement.

But then I remembered Fritz Perls’ Gestalt therapy rule:

''Every credit is a debit, and every debit is a credit''.

My mind had only been looking at one side of the consistency coin. I was entirely focused on the "debit" side, which is perfectly captured by the famous quote often attributed to Einstein:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

But what happens when we flip the coin over to see the hidden credit?

The Mirror Paradox: Why the Constant Looks Like Insanity

When we look at the flip side of the coin, a mirror paradox emerges. The formula changes completely:

• The Debit (Insanity): Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
• The Credit (The Constant): Doing the same thing over and over again and creating different results.

Suddenly, the mirror paradox reflection makes sense. If I commit to the constant—writing my blog weekly, going to the gym three days a week, or reading a book chapter every morning—doing the same action repeatedly is the only thing that guarantees my actions will compound and result in outcomes beyond my wildest imagination.

As Lao Tzu wrote: “Knowing the constant gives perspective. And this perspective is impartial.”

This blog is living proof of that insight. I have always wanted to be a writer. Since committing to the constant of getting my ideas down on paper regularly, I can see myself improving in real-time. I am enjoying the process of finding new and unexpected connections as I write.

This is not an emotional guess; it is an impartial perspective. I can objectively compare an earlier blog post to a later one and see the incremental increase in the quality of my writing. The aggregate reaction of people to my writing also provides an objective feedback.

Consistency is not insanity only; it is also insight. It is also compound interest. The longer we stay constant, the greater our transformation. I finally understand what the ancient text was trying to teach me: true success requires insight, and true insight is simply learning to master the constant.