Biodun Da-Silva: Surviving in a World of Causes and Effects

People say that for every action, there will be a reaction. For every reaction, there’ll be a counter-reaction. And, like a circle, it goes on and on. Cause and effect simply means a relationship between two events or things, where one is a result of the other. In layman terms, our actions, inactions or decisions make something else happen. Whenever cigarettes are advertised, “smokers are liable to die young” are always in the adverts. This means if you smoke, you will most likely die young. The cause is smoking, the effect is premature death.

When we understand that our action, inaction and every decision we make have consequences, we’ll be extremely intentional about the things we allow in our lives, our actions towards them, as well as learning to control our reactions to them. All our actions are ’causes’ and the outcome of these actions are ‘effects’. Effects can either be positive or negative depending on how strategic we are in choosing our ‘causes’. 

For example, food consumption is very vital to the sustenance of human life. We eat food for the nutrients it provides. The nutrients that are derived from food help in boosting our immune system and also fight against diseases. On the flip side, too much, too little food, or poor diet in our system is also dangerous and is a threat to our lives. As much as the human brain is powerful, if we don’t exercise it by reading and studying, it starts declining intellectually and our scope of knowledge becomes limited to what we already know. Our health is our life. If we don’t take good care of it, the effect is that we will die.

In a nation, what represents the essence of a civil society are the presence of basic amenities, national security, good governance, and strategic use of our national, natural and human resources. In the absence of this, corruption, poverty and chaos will thrive. In a relationship or marriage, it takes two to tango; both partners will have to be on the same page for any relationship to work. They will have to put in the work and the effort to ensure the preservation of the marriage. If they fail to work together, breakup or emotional abuse of one or both partners is imminent.

Cause and effect controls every area of our lives, still, many people do not know how their actions or inactions have affected their lives negatively. People die on a daily basis due to avoidable death because of limited knowledge about the fundamental principle of causes and effects. Most job seekers never take the time to see how employable or unemployable they are; they stopped learning when they graduated from the university, forgetting that theoretical learning is nothing compared to the real life training you get outside of school. Most importantly, we live in a world where information becomes obsolete at the speed of light. What was taught in the first year in the university may become obsolete before the fourth year or final year depending on your career choice, hence, the need to continually unlearn and relearn to sharpen our skills and knowledge. Learning transcends beyond the four walls of a university classroom and beyond that, continuous learning is key to working effectively and efficiently in this 21st century.

We must always take time to think before we carry out any action so we can get favourable results. Hunger causes us to eat, yet we cannot afford to eat just anything.

Since our existence centers around causes and effects, how do we survive? How do we ensure that the things we do don’t have damaging effects on our lives? The answer is simple: living intentionally.

When we are more aware of the actions we take, we influence the effect. We’ll be able to predict the outcome of any decision we make. Life will be so much easier for us when we understand the law of cause and effect. The key to living life fully is to live without regrets that emanate from our actions. Going through life wondering what we did wrong or what we could have done differently puts a lot of strain on us in the long run. That can be eliminated when we live intentionally through our thoughts, decisions and actions.

 

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