“He who thinks little errs much”, Leonardo Da Vinci
“If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe”, Abraham Lincoln
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”, Benjamin Franklin
It is rarely a good idea to jump and suddenly do something without think through. Emotional decisions can be very costly. Therefore, take the time to calm down and think through before you act.
Emotions and rational thinking occurs in two different parts of the brain. If you see a hungry lion racing towards you, it makes sense to quick climb up a tree. This is where the emotional brain works best. Today we rarely face such fight or flight situations in our lives. Instead we usually need our rational thinking brain to act. When we act on emotions, our rational brain is silenced. To be able to listen to our rational brain, we need to stop, calm down, and then think through the problem. It takes less than a minute for the emotional brain to calm down. Then we can make rational decisions, which are in our best interest.
Years ago I was on a road trip with two other friends. We took turns to drive. Two of us slept while the third one drove. I was suddenly awaken from my sleep by a loud crash. We were hit by a tow truck. The impact was severe and our vehicle’s trunk collapsed into crumbled metal. The next thing I noticed was my friend and the tow truck were arguing angrily and the temperature was rising. I jumped in between the two and yelled, everyone calm down. Suddenly both of them realized what they were doing remained calm and quiet for the remainder of the morning. I took the time to recollect myself after the shock. They didn’t. I got them to move their vehicles to the curb, put up hazard triangles on the road, and called the police. Their mistake was that the let their emotional brain take over and they might have ended up throwing fists and earning themselves bruises and jail time.
It is always a good idea to plan ahead. For your vacation and you will not miss essentials and will maximize the fun. Imagine learning about a great festival you missed in the area after your vacation. Plan ahead and create a grocery list to avoid impulse buying avoid having to go back to pick up the one essential you forgot to buy. Learn about a profession before you spent $100,000 and 4 years to qualify for it. Plan you how you will pay for your kids’ education and your retirement before they are ready for college and before you retire.
Spent a bit of time and effort in planning before you act. Otherwise you will be spending a lot more time and effort dealing with the consequences of failing to plan.