BULLET BUBBLEGUM

December 3rd, 2018

Gotta bite the bullet, as they say. 

What this refers to specifically is dealing with the consequences of your beliefs or actions.  Often these are unexpected and unpleasant consequences that we’d rather avoid.

And this is exactly what we’re more likely to do.  We let that bill go unpaid, we ignore the second one, and so on and so forth.  We let the first passive aggressive comment slide, we rationalize away unnecessarily angry behavior.  We eat that tub of ice cream… for the second day in a row.  The consequences of such actions or inactions add up.

But it’s never just one thing or one area where we make a mistake.  We’re human, we’re almost perpetually making mistakes that compound and lead to consequences that don’t seem to indicate that we have much empathy for our future selves.  This is what taking responsibility now instead of later really is…. empathy for our future self.  The sooner we are willing to bite the bullet, the better off our future self is going to be.

But like said, we usually have a whole magazine of bullets we need to start chewing on, and lining them up like in a magazine is probably the best first step to efficiently getting all those bullets chewed.

Meaning, best to make a list of all the things that we’ve been avoiding that would be best served sooner rather than later.

We make grocery lists,

we make bucket lists,

why not make a bite-the-bullet list?

It certainly doesn’t seem fun to do, and the prospect of doing so might look like a situation ripe for a panic attack, but if we can write down the first logical step towards solving each one along with the consequence we must face, would this turn the negative list inside out?

The purpose of such a list is not to invoke stress, but to begin to deal with that stress.  Solving life’s problems is by default not going to be without difficulty, but any problem inevitably has a series of steps and revelations that will lead to it’s solution.

Can we bite the bullets and make those first painful steps towards a better life?

Can we make a habit of biting the bullet, like a habit of chewing gum?

Best to bite the bullet and find out.