"Act without thinking"

Hi people of the light... This post is dedicated to my good friend Yuveshan Pillay. Yuvi (or Lava, as I call him) was the person that sent me the quote: “Most of the problems in your life are due to two reasons: you act without thinking or you think without acting”. Unfortunately I don’t know who to credit for this quote but it is brilliant nonetheless. So let’s break it down to its two points and discuss how these two important points have affected your life and how to overcome them in two posts.

Today’s post will deal with the first half of this brilliant quote. Tomorrow I will talk about “thinking without acting”.

  “You act without thinking...”

When a situation occurs many people jump straight into action. This can be very beneficial in case of emergencies. For example: You’re busy eating you dinner when suddenly your companion starts choking on a very large piece of grilled broccoli. It would be wise to jump up and dislodge the broccoli from the other person’s air-passage, instead of thinking about how you can’t understand why a person would purposefully want to eat broccoli.

There are some things in this world that you don’t have to think about, you just have to do. Like studying for a test or tying your shoe laces.

However, acting without thinking can lead you straight into the lion’s den. Hence I advise that some discretion must be used when determining when to act without thinking. For example: Before you decide to dump your boyfriend because he too busy to answer the phone. Dumping him could feel like best decision, but if you dump him and then find out two weeks later that his grandmother passed way the day you broke up with him, you’re going to feel horrible (to say the least). Not to mention that he will also feel horrible because you let him down when he needed your support. It’s not going to be easy to come back from that.

See these examples can go on and on and on... People do it so often these days that we tend to disregard our common sense and leap without knowing where will land. It usually ends up in a lot of unnecessary pain (emotional, mental and even physical) for you and other people. It becomes easy then to notice your actions before you make them. You start to think before you act because you value the end result more than the momentary satisfaction you get from jumping into a fool hardy action.

But sometimes it might be hard to notice yourself acting without thinking. And the best example I have for this is when people participate in gossip. Yes, you heard me! Gossip is acting without thinking. Sometimes we say things about other people with no regard for how it can change around and then come and bite you in the rear end. Sometimes people say things with so much innocence that they don’t even understand where the problem came from. But a problem is what they have. And as bad as it is to talk about other people to other people, it’s worse to add your opinion to the story as if it is a fact. The opinion tends to carry more weight than the situation, which can make things very nasty. For example: If you see Janet from accounting talking to Steve from HR, don’t go and tell John from marketing that Janet and Steve are going out, because it might turn out that Janet is actually engaged to John’s brother, thus ending their happy relationship and causing Janet to “accidentally” trip you into a pool of acid. Jokes... Janet might not do anything back to you, which might make your conscience kill you from guilt.

The bottom line in all of this is that acting without thinking comes from assumptions that we make. The problem with assumptions is that they are lies pretending to the truth. They are not facts, they are guesses fueled by experiences and beliefs that are unique to each individual.

Every person grows up learning things from all around them. We learn from our parents, our religion, communities, school, friends, family and our experiences. Which is why some people assume the best, some assume the worst, but both are lies until they proven with facts. Besides just because you have accepted that if your boyfriend doesn’t answer his phone then he’s cheating on you, does not make that true. A good rule to go by is to never assume anything, and even when it may seem as if you have all the facts, never assume that you have all the facts. I’m not suggesting that we become skeptical of everyone and every action, just that we don’t allow lies to rule our lives. As the saying goes “the truth will set you free”. Have the courage to ask questions and seek out the truth and you will stop acting without thinking.

I must warn you though; living life without making assumptions is incredibly difficult. It is only when you start trying to stop assuming, do you realize just how much we rely on assumptions. But once you start, you might experience a shift in your life. It’s almost as if parts of your life break down, like big buildings that block out the light, and then light starts to pour into you world. Unnecessary problems will begin to disappear and then a space is created inside you, which can be used just for you. In this space you will begin to focus and manifest love and peace into your life. And through the law of attraction you will also attract peace and love into your life, as well as the ability to attract your desires.

I wish you love and light as you journey into a world where you don’t act without thinking and you don’t rely on assumptions. May peace and love be with you.