Welcome to Today is that Day! Glad to have you as part of the community!

This is also known as taking a step back… essentially you remove yourself from the immediacy of the situation, looking at it from a less personal standpoint, and it makes it easier to use logic/common sense.

I’ve found meditation to be helpful.
Great post Aaron!

Love & Gratitude,
Tina

I have a slightly different view.

What you have presented all mostly logical points. However, don’t forget that at that point in time, when the decision was made, a bystander is not emotionally involved, and hence a logical decision is obvious.

Just reflect back to those times when you made one of these stupid mistake, what was the emotional state during and after?

The Greeks place The 3 Rhetorical Styles in such descending sequence of influencing power:
Ethos (character),
Pathos (Emotions),
Logos (Logic).

Well obviously emotions come before logic when it comes to ability to influence.

My challenge is how do we control our emotional state in such situations to have common sense or make logical decisions that are not stupid?

Any advice?

I was with you until #7 – the swallow your pride. Do you know what it’s like to constantly have to accept/work at one of these jobs? How personally demeaning it becomes if you always end up taking a job like this for those reasons, and you don’t love it?

I am not picking on people or jobs. For some people who are chefs and/or enjoy cooking, flipping burgers is a great thing. People who pick up trash are cleaning up the environment.

I am talking about the constant grind when you work to improve yourself and your circumstances, and yet you always end up back in the same type of job with the same low amount of pay. Swallowing your pride all the time soon leaves you with little or no pride whatsoever.

I too speak from experience. I am far from perfect; I have made my share of stupid mistakes, and at least one was a real doozy.

One of my main attributes is that I’m smart. I worked very hard through school, college, and university for my Masters, and really loved almost all of it. I love studying and learning; I like algebra and trig and math analysis. I like computers – my degrees are Computer Science (from 10 years ago) and Information Systems Management (the Masters from February). I really wanted to go into Nanotechnology and/or AI, but biological science and chemistry and I have never been friends.

And, basically, for 14-20 years I have had to “swallow my pride” and take the jobs that “helped put food on [the] table or keep a roof over [my]head,” jobs that are high-school graduate level and below. I have had coworkers that only care about what bar they’re going to after work, and how wasted they are going to get.

I am scrambling to find a job like that now, for those reasons. I am really struggling to not give up and give up on myself completely – there are several things that I have to give up anyway (another long story).

Not wanting to swallow your pride is not always stupid.

By the way, are you going to list “way[s] to not look or feel stupid” in each of these instances? Or did I misread that line? I wasn’t sure whether you had another suggestion, or that you were saying only that I should not see taking the job as stupid.

I am totally going to use that the next time someone rails on me for doing something they think is stupid. I’ll say:

“Yeah, that was stupid, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done something stupid, so it’s not so bad!

You are absolutely right about the litmus test, and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on how such a simple concept can make such a huge difference.

I have used a similar test in my goal attainment efforts:

“Will doing this action take me towards or away from my goals?”

It’s common sense, really, when you think about it. As you indicated, no matter what area of your life you are talking about, simply stopping to ask yourself if it is in your best interest is all it takes to know which road you need to travel.

Thanks, Steve!

Fantastic and I agree with everything you wrote.

Recently, a couple of guys in Burnsville Minnesota did one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read about. They walked into a department store with two sledgehammers, smashed the jewelry counter and stole some bling. Of course they were caught about 4 hours later and are going to do 20 years in the pen.

I can’t even fathom how little thinking must have went into this. Leave the moral argument out of it. Just use very simple logic. Risk 20 years in prison for several thousand dollars in bling or get a job and buy the bling in about 3 months with no risk at all.

I would say 100% of our problems in society come from people not thinking through their actions.

One simple litmus test for taking action:

Will this action make my life and the lives of others better in the long run?

It works with crime, relationships, eating, boozing, drug use, fitness, gambling, sex, money, politics, and time management.

Follow the test, and you’ll never make another stupid decision.

Every time I make a stupid decision, I forget to think before I act. Unfortunately I still do it sometimes, but awareness is key to better decision making. Become more aware of your own decision making process and your results will improve.

…hindsight is always more accurate than foresight…

You got that right, Adam!

When using that hindsight, figuring out what led to the less than savory circumstances to begin with can help us to keep from doing it again in the future.

Thanks for your comment, and that was exactly the point that I was wanting to get across. Even if stupid decisions have been part of the past, that is no reason to keep making them in the future!