THE FUCK IT MENTALITY
There are times when we need to put a lot of thought into our decisions and there are also times when we just need to take the plunge on gut instinct. Often, the brain will be in conflict with what the heart wants us to do and we can sometimes talk ourselves out of making the right choices. When we are paralysed to act – this is when the fuck-it mindset can kick in.
The gut is our security centre – our base from where the primal instincts reside. The fight or flight mechanisms are primed here for survival and it's the legs, activated from this primeval intelligence HQ, that move us, critically long before our minds have caught up to any perceived dangers.
Our heart centre is where the desires reside and it's from this central emotive central hub that our true self is housed. The true nature of our heart's wants & desires, will steer us along life's path.
Easy Come Easy Go
Making decisions from a one-person perspective can be limiting. That's why a collaborative effort from the head, the heart and the gut, can all come up with an answer through committee which safety, rationally and reassuringly justifies our decisions. However, these internal courtroom debates can take time and when there's an opportunity presented to us, with a pressing need to be actioned quickly, these on-the-fly decisions can be difficult to resolve without one or all three of our guiding decision makers getting in the way of success.
Life really is very short and missing an event with friends or passing up on a fun, life-enriching moment because of something irrelevant like money, is definitely one of those situations where the fuck-it mentality can step in to really help make that decision. Money is, at the end of the day, just an illusion. Money can be created and it can be moved around. In fact, there's many creative ways to make money work for us – it should never be the other way around. But there are of course some risk factors to take into account.
Assessments Of Risk
In order to activate the fuck-it mentality successfully (or to make the fuck-it move), we have to set some ground rules in for when the fuck-it-mentality/move (or FIM for short), can give us a clearer chance of success. It has to feel right. There are a few key factors to consider....
Finance. We've already mentioned that money is an illusion, but we do need to be reasonable about how much money we can stake on a FIM – because blowing everything on red or black (or the roll of a dice – Diceman style), all sounds fun, but we still need money for food and somewhere to live. SO money, within reason, shouldn't be a major determining factor, but FIM still has to allow for an acceptable level of loss, without having consequences for lasting misery!
Morals. Carrying out a FIM, knowing full well that moral boundaries are going to be crossed, really needs careful consideration. We are living in an era of close scrutiny, where cameras are placed everywhere, plus there's social media to think about too. So doing something that can be captured, shared with the world and commented on by all, could result in us acquiring a lot of negative interest – a bad reputation, hurt someone else's feelings really badly, or worse still, result in us getting a criminal record coupled with all the knock-on implications. Digital information can be stored indefinitely. So to perform a FIM, we first need a strong moral core and definitely require the capacity within us for making sound judgement calls on the fly.
Legals. FIM can sometimes cross over into tricky territory. How many times have we said 'What the hell' and gotten away with a little rule-breaking. Rules are there to protect us and ensure fairness. Smart people will learn the rules and find out how to 'bend' them and that's the fine line. Unless you are cute, wealthy or connected in some way, then the chances of getting away with rule-breaking are already somewhat limited when you get caught. Also, remember that small breaks in the law may have more serious implications down the line as even small misdemeanours are now recorded and kept on file – likely for good these days.
Injury. If there's an element of danger when performing any FIM, especially with a risk of bodily harm (no matter how big or small), potentially affecting either our own or somebody else's health – then we need to be fully aware of the implications. FIM's in this case, should be measured against knowledge of physics, environment and capabilities of all who are involved.
Stunt men and women are highly trained individuals who have to make a lot of danger evaluations in their work. Calculated risk assessments based on good prior knowledge of one's environment, are measured against the physical capabilities of an individual when performing a stunt. The physics for performing a risky move and the properties for making a safe landing, are all very carefully measured in advance to avoid injury. Sometimes, we can make good FIM judgements, but there can be many unforeseen and unconsidered factors which will impact success in this type of FIM.
Unfortunately, accidents tend to happen when we take things too lightly occur when we have underestimated properties of potentially harmfiul elements in our environment that can cause injuries. For example, snow can be soft to land in, but frozen snow can easily break a wrist. Likewise, hitting water at high velocity can knock someone out cold and jumping from height into a body of water without prior knowledge of the water's depth or knowledge about what lies beneath the surface, are setting ourselves up for trouble.
Making Time
Making a quick decision can really save time. It can get us on the train, first in line or ensure a place on the winner's table. FIM can be fun and create moments of serendipity. One minute we are in drizzly London and half a day away, we are on a beach in the sun or the top of a mountain. Cheap flights to a sunny, beautiful and exciting location are on sale every day.
If time really is an issue - ie. you think you don't have any – then that my friend, is where the FIM can really enrich one's life. Time can feel elastic – it can drag or it can fly by. It depends on what we are doing. Life is something we have to experience to the fullest and to do it, we have to make the time to enjoy as many quality moments of life as possible. Therefore, getting to know the FIM risks so there's personal rules in place for when it's going to be safe to adopt the 'fuck it mentality', will allow for many more moments of success and an enriched experience of life.
