Living Your Life
With Dr Abdulfattah Adeyemi
Incautious Nonchalance
An incautious person does not worry about problems that might come up. He doesn’t plan for the future, no contingencies, no preparations, and no arrangements.
He cannot see, sense, or admit the realities around him. He does not learn from others’ mistakes, and he is heedless to obvious early warning signs of trouble. His decision making skills are poor, he makes wrong choices and puts himself in awkward situations that are harmful and embarrassing to him and to others. He is modestly irresponsible.
Unfortunately, good education and pedigree do not always free people from this state of mind and action. It is a sort of thoughtless thinking. What do we mean by this? Incautious people actually think! The problem is that they think when it is too late.
They cannot make accurate predictions on the consequences of the actions and inactions of theirs and of others. As a result of the thoughtlessness and imprudence, they cannot take precautions to prevent imminent accidents and dangerous incidents.
An incautious behavior might include going late for work, events or important meetings every time, giving the same excuses for running behind schedule. Such a person only starts thinking when what was meant for him is given to someone else that is more forthcoming. An incautious person picks his calls while driving. He will only think of the dangers of this behavior after he has had an accident that would make him regret his actions for life.
An incautious mother gives a child small pieces of toys, which the child can swallow, to play with. She begins to think when the child starts chocking and needs to be rushed to the hospital. An incautious lady would suddenly see her period while she is in public but without her sanitary towels around. Another person gets pressed by nature in public, where there is no toilet around. He did not think that this could happen when he was stuffing himself with all sorts of legumes.
To be cautious is to be conscious. Tidy up your deals and finish up your commitments. Settle your quarrels with others, relate affably and respectfully with people. When you lift heavy objects, be conscious of your spines. When you drive on the roads, be as defensive as possible.
Do not treat matters of safety with negligence. Remove harmful objects from your path and others’. Observe personal, domestic and communal safety rules. Calculate possible injury and avert it, identify embarrassing situation and forestall it. Prevent accidents before they occur, and manage situations before they get worse. Above all, never take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!
