Consequences Are An Important Part Of Life

Our actions, including our thoughts, have consequences. Accepting this is what allows us to take control of our lives with a sense of purpose. That is when we can design it in a beautiful way and not let the lust of fate take us wherever it wants. Because there are no rewards or punishments in our daily lives. But there are consequences of what we do and do not do.

John Green said in his teenage book ” Looking for Alaska” that we must be aware of the chain of consequences that comes from even our smallest actions. With that said, it’s not very easy to do.

Many of us have grown up under a fixed behaviorist structure where all you need to do is press the red button and avoid the blue one and things will go well.

But our lives do not really care about blue and red buttons. Life neither rewards nor punishes us. What we have are small tips, small thin threads we can pull in to make things vibrate, change and affect reality.

Taking responsibility for all our words and silence, non-action and action, every thought, is how we should gain control over our lives. Adopting this perspective as soon as possible will help you reach your goals and have much better and more meaningful relationships.

Terrence Deacon is a well-known neuroanthropologist who is currently part of the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, Berkeley. One of his most interesting books is “The Symbolic Species.”

In it he reminds us of the untapped power we all have and does not put enough time and energy into it. We talk about our ability to calmly analyze the causes of things that happen and anticipate possible consequences.

Professor Deacon tells us that our daily lives do not consist of stimuli that we react to, as behaviorists would say. After all, we do not always get a reward or a punishment based on what we do and do not do.

There are “signs” around you that you need to know how to interpret in order to arrive at a suitable answer. To do that, we need willpower and wisdom. This is what we need to give a logical and correct meaning to the symbols that surround us.

For example, if you come to work and see a colleague crying at her desk, no one would ever think of looking up the boss to tell her that one of her employees “will not be very productive today.” No, we would wonder what the cause of the person’s emotional state may be. And then we think about how we can approach them and help them.

Professor Deacon also reminds us that we must be wise investigators. To begin with, we should assume that we are making mistakes. Sometimes we get it right with our answers and actions, but on the other hand we sometimes act wrong and have to put up with future consequences.

For life is sometimes like trying to play music with rubber gloves on. You want to press a certain key to make the perfect sound, but instead of pressing several keys at the same time.

The sound that comes out is a bit clumsy and untuned, but piece by piece, with daily training we can become skilled musicians who can bring out the melody we imagine in our heads. In the end, we hit the right keys.

Keep in mind that everything we do and believe has a number of consequences that can seem daunting at first. But instead of seeing it as a classic “cause and effect” relationship, you should see it all through a much wider lens.

You must understand that our existence is a wonderful game of discovery and creation. You must also understand that in this game you have to know the rules and guidelines that determine everything that will happen.

The rules are easy to learn and we will now tell you about them. Take a moment and think about the following…

• You can make your life better. You need to be clear about what you want to achieve and how to achieve it. 
• Understand that there are things, incidents and people that we can not change. We must accept them as they are. We must accept them as they are.

• Learn from your mistakes, failures and losses.
• Be receptive to everything around you: be proactive, creative and brave.
• Show respect. See your life as a delicate fabric where everything you do and say has an impact.

Last but not least, understand that life has no specific or predetermined design for you. It is you and your willpower that shape your own destiny. You can be the architect behind a fuller and more beautiful future.