Everyone feels guilty at times. So, it must have been a trait spread by natural selection. If you are in a dangerous zone (say, tigers roam around), you decide to get the hell out of there. But, a day has passed, you are still there. If you start feeling guilty, you may take action now to leave and if you do that will save your life. If you don't feel guilty, you may just continue to hang around and eventually eaten by a tiger.
So, it looks like guilt is a good trait, right? Also, there is a conception that if it a trait selected by nature, it must be a good one. Wrong. Nature doesn't produce traits. Traits happen randomly caused by genetic mutations. Nature just acts to weed out the weaker and select the stronger among them.
Suppose we had developed instead of guilt a new different trait - let us call it "newgem" - that forced us in the morning as soon as we wake up to take stock of where we are at that moment and then chalk out the action for just that day and start carrying it out. This, in my opinion, would have been an ideal trait.
The beauty of Newgem is, it doesn't care about the past nor does it worry about too far in the future, just today.
Newgem could be improved to include modifications during the day as events unfold. This will allow managing unexpected emergencies. The trait actually starts a mininewgem that evaluates the current situation and comes up with a quick solution. Without mininewgem, we would panic and do nothing or do wrong things.
But, alas, the fact of the matter is, there is no trait called newgem or mininewgem. That shouldn't stop us from exploiting the benefit of the concept of newgem or mininewgem.
Buy a little notebook that you can carry in your hip pocket.
Start the first entry tomorrow morning AS SOON AS YOU WAKE UP, "newgem today's date." If you can think of somethings that you should try to do (not necessarily complete, just start) write them down. For the rest of the day, occasionally glance at the newgem to remind yourself of the next step. If an unexpected event happens, stop, write down "mininewgem today's date, time" and then your to do for the emergency. If the nature of the emergency is such that you don't have the luxury of writing, just "mininewgem today's date, time" in your mind and carry it out.
NEVER look at newgem entries for the past, not even yesterday. If you want, after the day is over, tear it and throw it away.
The foundation of newgem is to THINK ABOUT ONLY TODAY, not yesterday, not tomorrow.
Today, only today, Ma'am!
So, it looks like guilt is a good trait, right? Also, there is a conception that if it a trait selected by nature, it must be a good one. Wrong. Nature doesn't produce traits. Traits happen randomly caused by genetic mutations. Nature just acts to weed out the weaker and select the stronger among them.
Suppose we had developed instead of guilt a new different trait - let us call it "newgem" - that forced us in the morning as soon as we wake up to take stock of where we are at that moment and then chalk out the action for just that day and start carrying it out. This, in my opinion, would have been an ideal trait.
The beauty of Newgem is, it doesn't care about the past nor does it worry about too far in the future, just today.
Newgem could be improved to include modifications during the day as events unfold. This will allow managing unexpected emergencies. The trait actually starts a mininewgem that evaluates the current situation and comes up with a quick solution. Without mininewgem, we would panic and do nothing or do wrong things.
But, alas, the fact of the matter is, there is no trait called newgem or mininewgem. That shouldn't stop us from exploiting the benefit of the concept of newgem or mininewgem.
Buy a little notebook that you can carry in your hip pocket.
Start the first entry tomorrow morning AS SOON AS YOU WAKE UP, "newgem today's date." If you can think of somethings that you should try to do (not necessarily complete, just start) write them down. For the rest of the day, occasionally glance at the newgem to remind yourself of the next step. If an unexpected event happens, stop, write down "mininewgem today's date, time" and then your to do for the emergency. If the nature of the emergency is such that you don't have the luxury of writing, just "mininewgem today's date, time" in your mind and carry it out.
NEVER look at newgem entries for the past, not even yesterday. If you want, after the day is over, tear it and throw it away.
The foundation of newgem is to THINK ABOUT ONLY TODAY, not yesterday, not tomorrow.
Today, only today, Ma'am!
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