Daily Gratitude: I’m sure I’ve written about this before but reminders on this topic are always useful….especially at this time in the world.
Understanding and comprehending this concept is probably one of the first steps toward success in your life.
It’s not just to prevent saying things you’ll wish you hadn’t, but it can prevent you from making impulsive decisions.
“Not me” I can hear you saying. “I don’t make impulsive decisions.”
OK. Making an impulsive decision isn’t just seeing how nice something looks and buying it. It really revolves around whether or not you looked at the consequences. To me that means thinking it through. I’ve made a lot of impulsive decisions in my life because i didn’t think of the long term consequences. The best example is when I’d been in the navy 16 years (only 4 to go to full retirement). I got orders to go to Okinawa. Not so bad I’ll bet you’re thinking. Yes but….(famous words). I would have had to have my two Siberian huskies in quarantine for 6 months – 6 months I couldn’t have them with me. So what did I do? I put in my resignation papers. I was just going to lose all that I’d worked for because of my dogs and 6 months. If that’s not impulsive I don’t know what is. Fortunately things worked out so I neither had to resign nor go to Okinawa. But you get the point.
Our emotions can govern us and when they do, we’re usually sorry.
There needs to be time between the stimulus (my getting the orders) and the response (to go or not to go). In my case there was a space, a pause. I didn’t make that decision lightly. I just didn’t really evaluate all the consequences BECAUSE I was being ruled by my emotions.
Practice the pause.
Next time you’re in traffic and some one cuts in front of you, pause before you blurt out what you were thinking. Then ask yourself “am I responding from my emotions or from reason. Have I considered the consequences?” Then you can move on. I suppose you’re saying “ha what consequences could there be when someone cuts me off?” Nowadays you’d be surprised at the possible outcome. Can you spell “road rage?”
Do this with every situation in your life. Make “practicing the pause” a habit.


