By Wouldn’t it be awesome to go through life without having to face the consequences of your actions? Imagine being able to do whatever you want to do, when you want to do it, with absolutely no consequential blow back. Hey… we all need a dream, right?
Go ahead and dream. But temper your dreams with a little bit of reality. The truth is that a life without consequences doesn’t exist. Everything you and I do, whether positive or negative, comes with consequences.
Financial Irresponsibility Has Consequences
All across America, there are people living paycheck to paycheck. Some live that way because they legitimately do not make enough money. But they are the exception to the rule. Most who find themselves living on the edge of their budgets are suffering the consequences of financial irresponsibility.
A person who continually spends more money than he earns will find himself being overwhelmed by a mountain of debt. Another person who maxes out her credit cards and then only pays the minimum amount due each month will forever be saddled by that debt.
For the record, financial irresponsibility doesn’t just have consequences for the individual. Businesses, nonprofit organizations, and even governments are subject to the same consequences. It is not possible to be financially irresponsible and get away with it free of all repercussion.
Lifestyle Decisions Have Consequences
Money is a great example of actions having consequences because we are so intimately familiar with it. Most of us know what it’s like to come up short at the end of the month. But set financial responsibility aside for one minute. Instead, think about your lifestyle choices. They have consequences, too.
Colorado, California, and sixteen other states welcome recreational use marijuana. In Colorado, anyone of legal age can use marijuana for just about any reason. Meanwhile, in neighboring Utah, marijuana is a strictly medical product.
What does this have to do with lifestyle decisions and consequences? A lot, actually. The Utah Department of Health warns against pregnant women and nursing mothers using cannabis products. They are not alone. According to Utah Marijuana out of Salt Lake City, the medical community is fairly certain that THC is not good for either unborn babies or nursing infants.
A pregnant or nursing mother in Colorado choosing to use marijuana recreationally could be endangering her child. Her actions are not consequence-free. Nor are the actions of the young man who climbs behind the wheel of his car while under the influence.
Nothing Is Harmless
One of the hardest lessons of life is that nothing is harmless. Even something as essential to life as eating becomes harmful if it is overdone. Eating can also be harmful if you ingest something poisonous.
Humanity has always had this utopian desire to live life without consequences. We want to be able to do whatever feels good in the moment. We want to be able to pursue our own pleasures without such pursuits negatively impacting others. But that sort of life is not possible. It does not exist.
Everything you and I do has consequences. Sometimes those consequences only affect us individually. But more often than not, they affect other people as well. How many of us have hurt the ones we love most by doing something that created harmful consequences for them?
If you do not manage your money according to sound principles, you are going to find yourself in financial straits. If you use marijuana inappropriately, you are eventually going to end up harming someone. No matter how much we wish it to be so, a life without consequences just doesn’t exist.
