The only thing that can happen to you when you’re in the wrong place is a wrong thing. But even when you find yourself in a “wrong place” inwardly, you don’t have to remain there. The way to turn any painful interior location into an act of self-liberation is by daring to exchange that false sense of self you’ve found there for the awareness of your momentary mistaken identity.

Following are 20 ways you can be sure you’re in the wrong place. The more aware you can be of where you are—moment to moment—- the less likely you’ll regret what happens to you, having wandered there by mistake.

You’re in the wrong place whenever:

1. You’re rushing around – mentally, emotionally, physically
2. You catch yourself talking to yourself…about anything
3. You feel the need to nervously explain yourself to anyone else
4. You’re trying to make an impression, or struggling to win approval
5. You’re nervous over the arrival of some anticipated moment
6. You agree with someone outwardly, but secretly inwardly disagree
7. You don’t let others finish their sentences that you might speak instead
8. You feel any form of self-loathing
9. You’re eating food when you’re not hungry
10. You seek to gain an advantage over someone else
11. You’re sure it’s better to avoid a challenge than to enter into it
12. You know you’re right, and that everyone else is wrong
13. You’re in a daydream
14. You speak or act from impatience
15. You feel the wish to punish someone for not doing as you wish
16. You can’t wait to show someone where he or she is wrong
17. You’re anxiously tapping your foot, or drumming your fingers
18. You find yourself reliving some past painful experience
19. You allow a fear to tell you what’s possible and what’s not
20. You’re judging yourself, or another…for being in the “wrong place”