Knowing the End Result Can Help You Make Good Decisions

C. V. White Quote: "One bad act can wipe out years of character building."

Knowing the End Result Can Help You Make Good Decisions

Sometimes it is difficult to see what the end of a decision is going to be if you have no examples of the results of people doing the things that you are about to make a decision to do.  However, there are other times when you can know exactly the end results of a particular decision and yet not think that can happen to you. There is a thin line between wanting and having especially where there is more than one possible outcome. 

For instance, if you do something that you know will cause you some kind of trouble, you may reason that if you get caught you will get special favor and not have to pay the price. However, you realize that there is a price that should be paid and that price is very unpleasant, dangerous or maybe even requires incarceration of some kind.  As an adult, you have to count the cost and decide if you are willing to take the risk of the worst case being the judgment that you will have to face, if it is not then why take the risk. 

Many times people believe that they will get away with some things because they saw or heard of some else getting away with that same thing.  That is a childish attitude; children will sometimes point out to their parents what a sibling, a friend or a neighbor did to get the parents to overlook something that they did wrong.  However, that never works because the parents know that the child has to deal with what they did wrong and get that corrected.  It does not make what was done a right thing to do just because someone else did it.  Therefore, you cannot assume that your judgment for what you do that is bad or evil will get you the same judgment that someone else received good or bad.  You can work on your character for twenty years and commit one bad act and wipe out all of your accomplishment to set your life in the order you desired in one day.  You have twenty years of good character reports and if you need a character reference you can ask almost anyone you know and get a good one. But when you make a decision to do something bad,  thinking that you will not get caught or you will not get the worst end of the deal, you have to count the cost seriously and ask yourself if you want the result that you should get for doing that particular thing. 

If you make the decision to go ahead to do what you planned then you risk losing everything and having to start over, you can’t blame anyone, nor can you point out what someone else did as your defense.  Parents are forgiving of their children because it is their job to teach and train them when they do things that need correcting, but adults are not so forgiving, if you commit the crime they want you to do the time.  Parents are the safety net that children have in place to protect them when they come to them with that foolishness, but adults do not have that safety net in place and what they do will not be overlooked because of what someone else did or did not do. 

Once your character is damaged, you have to now look for someone who likes you and will give you a good character reference based on your relationship with them and not on your character.  Count the cost and make decisions that will keep you out of trouble and move you forward, not decisions that will shut you down or send you backwards.  Your time is valuable so use it wisely and try not to lose it because you think you will not get caught.