Think Before We Speak And Act

My experiences of life have taught me many things. One of the most important lessons is using my head. I have never felt good or proud of myself for saying or doing something negative to someone else. We take our relationships with others for granted. If we actually thought and experienced being on our own and having no one to support us through our ups and downs, share our life with, people to chat and have fun with, we would think a lot harder about the things we say and do. We need to think about how we behave affects our relationships and the society around us.

We are all guilty of saying things we should not say and doing things we should not do, after all, we are human. However, we must make an effort to learn from our mistakes and think about the consequences of our actions. I am not necessarily saying that we must stay in destructive relationships. There is no doubt that we must free ourselves from harm because it will not benefit us down the line, but we must not cause unnecessary harm. We must also remember that healthy relationships have boundaries. Be good to people, but we should not allow them to abuse us. We have to learn to respect each other as well as ourselves because it is important that we have healthy functioning relationships and a healthy society.

Thinking before we speak or take action does not mean that we stay quiet. It is about getting balance. If we are being harmed we need to speak up to sort the problem. There is a difference between speaking up to sort a problem than to saying and doing things harmful to someone because we are angry, jealous or resentful. If we do not sort problems they will continue.

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Life is very short and we should spend it learning to grow and make our societies a better place for our children. If we do not do this, what future do we have? We are not an island and we need the companionship of others.

Treating others badly has to be thought about carefully. Why would we want to anyway? We have to think about the sort of people we are if we take pleasure in doing this. We are not able to take back the things we do or say, however, there is always a chance for forgiveness and a chance to repair the damage, but it might take some time and we could have permanently ruined the relationship. It also damages society so think carefully.

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My final thoughts are that I have learned greatly from my experiences whether they are good or bad. People who have treated me unfairly or been unkind to me have made me grow. I chose to turn the bad experiences around and learn from them, they have made me stronger. People who have stood by me, who have been supportive and good to me have given me a sense of belonging and companionship. The more I learn from my mistakes, the better person I become. The better person I become, it allows me to cope better with the challenges of life. Relationships with good people are very important. Respect is important because without this we loose our worth as human beings.

I always think to myself before I speak or act:

• Am I being fair and honest?
• How will my words or actions affect the other person?
• How will my words or actions affect the relationship?
• Will it make my relationship better or will it destroy it for good?
• What are my reasons for taking action?
• Am I just being resentful, jealous or angry and not doing it for the right reasons?