In that convenient moment between stimulus and response…
the pause…
it might make sense to consider the impact of your actions…
especially in the following 20 impactful pauses to ponder…
1. Before buying that thing that you really don’t need, pause to consider the impact of how material can never impart true happiness…
2. Before throwing that recyclable refuse into the garbage can, pause to consider the impact of a world where landfills dominate the landscape…
3. Before consuming that manufactured food full of growth hormones, pesticides and other chemicals, pause to consider the impact of fake foods on our planet and our children, not to mention your own body…
4. Before taking on more debt to buy that SUV gas-guzzling behemoth, pause to consider how it might be contributing to more oil inspired wars and an overheated atmosphere…
5. Before mortgaging the better part of your life to build that 5,000 square foot mansion that will make the Joneses green with envy, pause to consider that most people in this world live in homes smaller than your kitchen and the impact your money could otherwise have on making life better for others…
6. Before buying that huge rock that will manipulate your bride to be to offer her body and her life to your will, pause to consider the impact of those who sweated and died in African conflict zones to make that gesture possible…
7. Before buying that pair of sneakers with your favorite logo, or that piece of technology that you must have because everyone else has one, pause to consider the impact on the lives in the overseas sweat shops where those items are produced for your materialistic pleasure…
8. Before deciding on a career that has as its primary motive, making lots of money, pause to consider the impact that your life could have if the objective were instead improving the lives of others…
9. Before deciding to join the military, pause to consider the impact of dedicating a good chunk of your life, or even more, to an industry whose main objective is to kill people and blow things up…
10. Before you snort that line of coke, or take that one drink too many, or smoke that next pack of cancer sticks, pause to consider the impact that it has in shortening your time and productivity on this earth…
11. Before you stroke that check as your tithe to the local church that tows the far-right line that absurdly proclaims global warming is just a leftist hoax, pause to consider the impact on the planet of continued political denial of an incontrovertible fact that threatens us all…
12. Before you pull that lever, push that button, or punch out that hole in the voting booth, pause to consider the impact of potentially empowering the powerful to do more harm to people and planet…
13. Before you spend another day working for a company whose only real reason to exist is to make a profit for the financial elite with total disregard to the effects of its actions on people and planet, pause to consider the impact of your daily contribution to this travesty…
14. Before you give that homeless person a wide berth because you just don’t want to be bothered with another’s neediness, pause to consider the impact that lending a bit of help might have on this fellow human being’s day or life…
15. Before you schedule that next luxury vacation to the Mexican Riviera, or Bahamas, or some similar place where indulgence is the focal point, pause to consider the impact of a vacation in which cultural immersion might open your eyes to the wider world that you inhabit…
16. Before you tell that racially oriented joke among friends that you know will get a laugh, pause to consider the impact of thinking in a way that considers some humans inferior to others solely due to the color of their skin…
17. Before you post that politically charged comment to Facebook, Twitter or your social network of choice, pause to consider the impact of what you are saying or thinking really has on the Big US…
18. Before you walk out your door in a bad mood once again, pause to consider the impact that your smile and kind words can have to brighten the day of another human…
19. Before you go to sleep at night, pause to consider the impact that your life has had that day on bettering the condition of not just yourself, but people and planet as a whole…
20. Every day pause to consider the impact of your life…
we’re all depending on it.
image credit: striatic via Compfight cc
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