Thinking Twice on First Intentions

WHOOPS! One little mouse click and so much damage. “How could it come to this so easily?” we cry out in our minds! We’ve all done this sort of thing. An errant email, poorly worded or addressed, or simply a mistaken selection and we’re left ruing our usually accurate quick instinct.

And, still, what do we do with a situation like this? Stew on it for an hour or so?

The Fear Response

Fear is a horrible thing. It drives us subconsciously to stubbornly hold onto a forlorn course against better judgment. It also causes us to lack faith that things of their own volition will at times sort themselves out. It causes us also to fume even though that sort of reaction won’t help in the slightest. When we act first on things often via pure instinct we’re bound to make a silly mistake from time to time. So why do we cruel ourselves for it?

Sometimes our first intentions and instincts are the best we could think of; sometimes we’re caught out, less than ourselves.

No matter the circumstances relating to the act or faux pas we really are best not to make it worse by:

è Sticking stubbornly to a bad decision, worrying about what others will say about our situational poor judgment if we change our minds (not conceding that everyone suffers poor judgment at times);

è Quickly backing out of something that in all likelihood may just turn out with a little patience or a slight change in tack; or,

è Getting angry or upset about it.

Nothing in life really is that super important. Times like these we need perspective. We often grew up encouraged to ‘count to ten.’ And it’s as simple as that really if we can practically do it.

Faith or Fear – Positive or Negative

Faith and fear reside on the same continuum and they drive us positively or negatively. And there is a pattern to all this.

Those who react positively in faith by having the humility to realise and correct the mistake decisively, or simply be patient when the situation requires it, grow their faith more and more because the consequences reward them.

Likewise, those taking the negative action driven by fear in stubbornly holding to the poor initial decision, or giving up prematurely on things, grow their fear and become further entrenched to it—and they’re generally punished by the consequences; not all of which are readily seen. There’s certainly not much of the positive taken from these experiences.

An Easy Choice

It’s not much of a choice, is it? Be positive by expressing faith or be negative and be controlled by fear. It doesn’t seem a choice at all, but many of us will still routinely choose the latter as if it were the only way. We must begin to challenge our thinking.

Let’s commit to the long haul of growing in faith and never getting into routines and responses of negativity. Change toward faith takes time. We need to be patient.

It’s an easy choice really. The comparison doesn’t bear much consideration.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.