a betrayal of our own higher, truer, realer potential selves

Yeah, that one. I remember instances where I tried to convince myself to act in a certain way, just to regret it afterwards. In my head I use arguments like "Others would do the same" or "This is clearly not my responsibility"...

To counter that I nowadays often ask myself "Would I be proud or ashamed telling the story of what happened?" Of course that does not work all the time, but it helps.