Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.

Four things get in the way of a clear head, and they are all internal. Display, the impulse acted on before thinking, the appetite that decides for you, and reasoning that has gone to work for whatever you already wanted. The last is hardest to spot, because it arrives sounding like good sense.

Choose one for the week. Drop a piece of display, or put ten minutes between an impulse and the act, or notice one appetite doing your deciding. When your reasoning runs unusually smoothly toward something you already wanted, treat that as a flag.