Most nonsense does not begin with stupidity.
It begins when awareness temporarily leaves the room.
Sometimes all it takes to bring common sense back is one simple word:
PAUSE.
I see people all the time NOT being aware of what they are doing until somebody else speaks up with feedback or input.
It happens professionally.
It happens personally.
It happens in families, businesses, conversations, meetings, traffic, stores, relationships—and probably in our own lives more often than we would like to admit.
LOL.
Within every one of us is an incredible little tool that, when engaged, can make life travel much more smoothly.
I am talking about COMMON SENSE.
We all have this sense.
And when we use it, strangely enough, we have it in common.
When we do not use it?
Well…
NON-SENSE.
Common sense not engaged.
That is Richie mathematics.
KIDS ARE EXEMPT
Kids get a little more room here.
Why?
Innocence.
Naivete.
Lack of experience.
Lack of savvy.
They simply have not accumulated enough life yet to recognize every consequence before it arrives.
Even so, I have seen some wonderful displays of common sense from children.
Sometimes better than the adults standing beside them.
LOL.
But when an adult repeatedly operates without common sense, something else may be happening.
Often it is a lack of awareness.
The person is moving too quickly, reacting emotionally, assuming too much, or simply not looking at what they are doing.
If people would PAUSE and observe themselves for a moment, many would see the problem without anybody having to explain it.
RELAX…WILL YOU?
That is one reason I am always telling people:
Do not hurry.
Think it through.
Look again.
And my all-time favorite caveat reduced to one word:
PAUSE.
I even make the TIME-OUT sign with my hands.
LOL.
Why?
Because the pause interrupts momentum.
And momentum can be dangerous when you are headed in the wrong direction.
You do not necessarily need a lecture.
You may simply need three seconds.
Pause.
Look.
Listen.
Ask yourself:
Does this make sense?
Am I making this situation better or worse?
Would I think this was reasonable if somebody else were doing it?
What happens next if I continue?
Common sense often returns immediately when given a little room.
THE PAUSE IS WHERE AWARENESS RETURNS
Think about how many unnecessary arguments could be avoided by a pause.
How many emails should have sat in the draft folder for another ten minutes.
How many angry words could have remained unspoken.
How many purchases might not have been made.
How many assumptions could have been checked.
How many misunderstandings could have been cleared up before becoming a five-alarm fire.
Sometimes we are not lacking intelligence.
We are lacking distance.
We are standing too close to our emotion to see what we are doing.
PAUSE creates distance.
Distance creates perspective.
Perspective lets common sense back into the room.
A BEAUTIFUL FLOW
When someone uses common sense properly, we usually do not even notice it.
Why?
Because things simply flow.
The person waits their turn.
They read the room.
They check before acting.
They think about consequences.
They treat people reasonably.
They do not make a mountain out of something that should have remained a small hill.
Everything feels natural.
No alarm bells.
No unnecessary drama.
No one says:
“WOW! Look at that person using common sense!”
LOL.
It is simply the expected flow.
We usually notice common sense only when it disappears.
Something feels out of order.
Something does not fit.
Something makes everybody look at one another and wonder:
“What are they doing?”
That is when NONSENSE gets identified.
COMMON SENSE IS NOT THE SAME AS KNOWING EVERYTHING
There is another distinction worth making.
Common sense does not mean you know everything.
It does not mean you are always right.
It does not mean your personal experience applies perfectly to everybody else’s circumstances.
Sometimes what we call “common sense” is really just:
“That is how I would do it.”
Be careful with that.
Real common sense has some humility in it.
It asks questions.
It gathers enough information.
It recognizes when it does not know.
Sometimes the most sensible thing a person can say is:
“I don’t know enough about this yet.”
There is no nonsense in that.
BEING FOOLISH?
Being foolish or acting absurdly introduces us to another meaning of nonsense.
People usually recognize it when they see it.
The real trick is recognizing it when WE are the one doing it.
That takes awareness.
Phase one:
You notice yourself before doing the foolish thing.
Excellent.
Phase two:
Somebody else points it out and you stop long enough to consider what they are saying.
Also excellent.
The problem comes when somebody points it out and our pride immediately answers:
“Nobody tells ME what to do.”
Now common sense has left the building and ego has taken the microphone.
LOL.
FEEDBACK CAN BRING US BACK TO OUR SENSES
Feedback does not automatically mean the other person is correct.
But it does mean information has arrived.
Receive it.
Look at it.
Compare it with reality.
Then decide.
A person who can hear:
“Hey, you might want to reconsider that”
without treating it like a declaration of war has an advantage in life.
Sometimes another person sees what we cannot see because we are standing inside the situation.
They may simply be helping us…
come back to our senses.
Our COMMON senses.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Here is the way I see it.
Before you say it…
PAUSE.
Before you send it…
PAUSE.
Before you buy it…
PAUSE.
Before you accuse…
PAUSE.
Before you make something permanent because of a temporary emotion…
PAUSE.
You may discover that your common sense was there the entire time.
You just had not given it a chance to speak.
FINAL THOUGHT
Nonsense is often not the absence of intelligence.
It is intelligence moving without awareness.
Common sense returns when we slow down enough to see what is actually happening.
PEARLS INSIGHT
Practicing common sense means combining awareness, patience, observation, experience, and good judgment before acting. A simple pause can improve decision-making, communication, relationships, and professional conduct because it gives us time to recognize consequences before creating them.
PEARLS CONNECTION
This connects directly with the Pearls themes of awareness, hindsight, transparency, and conscience.
Awareness asks us to see what we are doing.
Common sense asks whether it makes sense.
Conscience asks whether it is right.
Hindsight shows us what happened when we ignored all three.
Better to catch it on the front end.
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
Throughout the Pearls philosophy, awareness is one of the great doorways to personal growth.
The more awake we become to ourselves, our surroundings, and our consequences, the less life has to teach us through unnecessary collisions.
Sometimes wisdom is profound.
Sometimes wisdom is simply:
“Richie…don’t do that.”
LOL.
And sometimes that is enough.
So travel well.
Do not hurry unnecessarily.
Look before you leap.
Think before you speak.
And when things start getting a little crazy…
come back to your senses.
Your COMMON SENSE.
It has been waiting for you.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
Been expecting you