The Problems of Hastiness

Whilst hastiness can be a sign of enthusiasm, often it just creates mistakes and errors. How many of us have said to ourselves: "I wish I hadn't done that", or "If only I had just taken the time to think". I'm guessing a lot of us have, it's a very common thing to do, which is why it can be so problematic.

A proverb you may want to consider is: 'Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth'. - Proverbs 19:2. While some of you who read this aren't Christians, I think it can still be agreed upon, that this is a good principle to apply in our lives.

That if we're hasty and if we're without knowledge, we're going to make mistakes. 

Now a proverb is a generally true statement, and I'm not suggesting that every time someone is hasty something bad happens, but on the vast majority of time - this is a true statement.

You may be thinking, 'I've heard things like this before, I don't need them as I'm not going to make mistakes'. Inevitably you will, we all will, and that's why we need to think about what we do before we act.

So often we want to be in on the action, and want to part of what's happening now. Whilst caught up in the moment we don't think about the consequences until it's too late.

I know many of you who are reading this (and myself included), have learnt from previous mistakes, in fact it's one of the best ways to learn. However, when it comes to being hasty, there's something that always catches us out, always trips us up. We don't only have to learn from our mistakes, but from the mistakes of others as-well.

Some of the things I've done in the past as a result of hastiness and lack-of knowledge of the situation, makes me cringe to think about, and I can think of many different (and much better) ways I could have gone about handling the situation.

The next time your faced with a decision, however small or large it may be, really have a good think about what you're doing. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What Are The Costs? 

There might be no immediate costs that cross your mind at first, and it's not just financial cost I'm talking about. 

Relationships with those around us, spiritual relationships, personal costs, and the emotional costs. Consider it carefully, even if you consider it to be a calculated risk.

I had some grandparents who owned a chain of businesses and funeral directors, and they were offered a deal into some hotels. These hotels would have made them millionaires, however, there was only a tiny chance of the deal falling through. Even though the positive outweighed the negative by far, after my grandparents went through with the deal, it did fall through and they lost everything.

2. What do Others Think? 

It's always good (where possible) to get someone else's idea and opinion. Don't choose someone who normally makes hasty decisions themselves and would tell you to go ahead with your plan, only stopping to think about the costs later. Instead, go to somebody who you know normally makes the right choices and seek their counsel.

You can also think about the situations of others you've heard about or know of, that are similar to yours and what happened to them as a result of their decisions.

3. Pros and Cons 

Try to get into the habit of weighing the positives and negatives of every decision you make. This will help you make the right decisions (if you do it wisely).

First go through all the pros, thinking about them hard, and asking yourself if they're really worth it. If they are, then go over to the negatives, and ponder upon them. If you have a gut instinct that tells you that the negatives outweigh the positive - don't do it.

Also, when you're first going through the pros, and you feel that they're not really worth going along with, then don't do it.

If you've done step 1, then you'll probably have a good idea what the negatives are already.