Right Action or How Smart People Do Stupid Things

What is right action? This morning, right action occurs to me to be something like this:

Wake up, bike to the Fells, run in the fells, then come back and spend the day studying a section of the gre.

The focus is not so much on which activities I do, so much as that those activities are conducive to a healthy lifestyle, and of the kind, in the right way, at the right time, and for the right purpose.

For instance, I could choose to write poetry for my collection for 3 hours and then go meet friends for a party.

The moment of clear thinking is particularly important. It is the moment of choice. It is the moment when we choose how we proceed forward. Too often this moment is taken for granted, pushed-past, skipped over, or left to the fate of haste, hurry and just decide! Haste prevents us from taking "right action" on things we have difficulty accepting, handling, facing, or doing, despite knowing it is something we want to do or face, like choosing between a salad and a donut for lunch, or between studying for an exam or watching a movie. Haste in moments like this, or rather, the steam-rolling over a moment of clear-thinking is particularly detrimental for our future and for our current lives. Just as our bodies have optimal times for digesting food, our brains have optimal times for decision-making. Moments of  clear-thinking are essential to the formation of good habits, making a change, reflection, introspection, and allowing oneself to think before acting, living life with your frontal-lobe (the planning, organizing, and decision-making part of the brain, or the one commonly associated with separating humans from animals) and amygdala in concert, as opposed to just your amygdala (the emotion center of the brain), which can lead to regret, shame, and rotten teeth (as well as obesity, depression, anxiety, and many other physical and emotional ailments).

This is how smart people do stupid things. They fail to do right thinking, use moments of clarity wisely, to allow themselves time for reflection in the few moments that they have to make "that crucial decision" about how to proceed with their day, a new action, or any moment where decisions are made, all the way from which yogurt to buy, to whether you will hike Mt. Washington that day, to whether to take a job that has just been offered to you.

All too often, we make decisions out of fear of having to dwell on a difficult one or having to make a decision about something we are uncertain or have not fully fleshed-out all of the concerns we may have about it. This is the time to flesh-out those concerns so that you can see more clearly what decision to make. All too often, we fail to take the time to flesh-out the concerns and fears we have surrounding a particular subject because we dismiss it as taking too much time or  that it can be left for another time (aka procrastination.) However, time passes and our thoughts surrounding the issue build up and create patterns of regret and shame as we realize we have pushed the issue into the backs of our minds and failed to address it. So, instead of multiplying into the healthy cells of a liver, it becomes the mutated cells of a tumor, ruefully pushed back and ignored into the furthest reaches of our minds, mutating good intentions into self-doubt, depression, secret-harboring, and un-examined guilt, painted over with ice cream pints, frivolous distraction (at the time rationalized as "necessary"), excessive socializing, television watching party-going, or even book reading. Any action which you choose to do to distract you from facing a complicated issue at a moment of clarity, is an opportunity lost to either continue down a particular road or change direction in accordance with your goals.

However, be careful of "the deliberation distraction," in which discussion of or worry about that which you have difficulty facing, in order to NOT face or do that which is causing you discontent. There is a balance between examining what worries you and simply using that examination as a way to further procrastinate. Instead, examine the options insofar as you need to examine your feelings about it, and then make the decision and act on it. Thought without action, where action is at some point needed, renders thought pointless.

For instance, I can talk for hours and hours about how much I do or don't know whether I should take a particular exam or apply to a particular grad school, but at the end of the day, this is just an excuse to spin my wheels and NOT make a decision about something. I am giving myself permission to harm myself by wasting my time and not giving myself the opportunity to experience life, fail, succeed or take part in the act of living. I mire myself in the quicksand of fear, only to emerge time and again gasping for air but never allowing myself to use that energy to think deliberately.

Identify clear moments of thought, make note of when they usually occur, and use them to deliberate, make a decision, and act. If morning provides the most clarity for you, make sure to set aside 30 minutes to an hour in the morning to "make right decisions".