Share This
I’ve been reading an amazing book which I’ll be reviewing on TCC soon. Besides the fact that it’s highly entertaining, the author also includes some rather profound statements that I’ve never come across before; simple sentences that made me stop and think. One dealt with new decisions vs making choices that are just a result of having to clean up messes we’ve caused in the past.
I forgot to mark the page so you’ll just have to bare with me and read on without the actual quote. I suck. Sorry.
I remember the sentence had such an impact on me that I closed the book, set it down and then rolled the idea over and over in my head. How many of our daily decisions are acted upon because we feel it would clean up a mistake we’ve previously made? The main character was talking about eating a salad on Tuesday as a way of making up for, or correcting, the fact that she ate a hamburger and milkshake on Monday. That’s an extremely literal example, but it can be applied to many areas of life; from the simple to the complex.
How many times have I, you, everyone said, “I’ll just (over indulgence here) and then skip it completely tomorrow” or “I know she/he is mad at me, but I’ll make it up to them later”?
We are constantly correcting the past with decisions of the present….even into the future.
I wish I could pat myself on the back for the decisions I’ve made that, at the time, I thought were my own cleverness coming to life. But if I look hard enough I know they were conceived from the negative results of decisions in the past. Live and learn, right? Fair enough. But, are we being honest with ourselves that simply over compensating the next time around is enough to erase the last time? Or is it more like spraying air freshener over a foul odor instead of cleaning up the source of the smell?
I’m making a conscious decision to stop giving myself allowance simply because I can ‘clean up’ whatever it is later. Starting today I will take steps to make sure what I do, say and how I live doesn’t require fixing in the future. I know it won’t be easy. It may be close to impossible. But, I won’t know unless I try.
