This is a subject that I think is so important – I will write about it in several parts (fair warning)…

The concept I want to talk about is “cause and effect.”  The way my mind works (this may be a fairly scary area to go into), this has always been a pretty straight forward idea.  For instance, as a kid if I was told not to do something and I went ahead and did it anyway, I could expect that there would be an “effect” for what I did.  Make sense so far…?

Another idea I firmly believe, that is closely tied to the concept of cause and effect, is the idea that when you break it down, life is quite simply a series of choices.  We all have many, many choices to make in our lives.  Some are hard, some are easy.  Some may appear to be easy, but turn out to be more complex or difficult than we anticipated   In any event, we have choices to make and hopefully, at the end of our lives, we have made more good choices, than bad.

The thing that makes choices even more exciting is when that whole cause and effect thing comes into play.  Even choices that we believe are good, and the right thing to do, may have an unintended effect that could even be negative.

Again, does this make sense to you so far…?  If it does make sense to you, then let’s move onto the next idea.  If it doesn’t make sense… well, I guess you should stop reading because this is just the beginning of my thoughts on this (hence, the “Part One” on the title above).

Okay, since you have stuck with me, I guess I can assume you understand what I am proposing so far.  If we agree that there is definitely a cause and effect, and that life is in its most basic form – a series of choices… then why do people seem to be so stupid…?

Admittedly that last statement was a bit harsh, but really – why is it so hard to understand? For instance, we talk quite a bit about learning, exploring, and asking questions on this blog.  That is because those things are firmly rooted in who we are, and as such – help to make up our philosophy. The obvious effect of all of that is that you learn and see new things.  That, for the most part, is a good thing.  Right?

So, when you listen to people (or even listen to yourself) and there is this theme of “why am I stuck in this” –  (fill in the blank) or, “I am tired of this”  – (fill in the blank), and so on, doesn’t it make sense that the answer to whatever is that is irksome is to change it.  So now you have choices to make.  Is it really that bad? (Yes or no.)  Are there other options?   (Yes or no.)   Is it time to make a change?  (Yes or no.)  And of course that process goes on and on…

The “effect” in what I am talking about is your life.  And by and large, you are the “cause”, so take charge and make choices that will hopefully have the “effect” you are looking for.  Make sense so far…?

More to come…