Immediate Gratification

Immediate gratification is not the best method to determine if an idea or plan is the best solution to a problem. People tend to be reactive. When a person is reactive, they experience consequences to a problem without foreknowledge of an outcome. Even if there are good consequences or consequences are subtle, they live from one moment to the next. If consequences are dangerous, there is a considerable amount of time and energy spent on survival. There is no additional time or energy to work on building a future.

Proactively thinking about consequences and determining methods to develop plans in relation to ethics assists in taming additional consequences. there is no method to know the future. When working toward a goal, there is less time and energy spent on activities that interfere with life.

An example is wanting to graduate from a university. A Proactive Student realizes studying and reading is important to graduate. They want "the college experience." A social life interferes with studying. They can have both if they are proactive in realizing consequences and adjusting plans to accommodate both. Otherwise, they work twice as hard to maintain studying and going to parties. They will be average in both or not succeed in one.

By having a plan to have both, they might want to address issues around both. They must study, yet friends call. Study at the campus library. This creates time to study. Then they are able to build friendships, yet what do they want from friendship: marriage opportunities: a greater number of friends with mutual interests for the future, or time to really have fun before beginning a career. These factors focus a social life to specific people. Now there is a possibility to succeed at both.

Immediate gratification distorts an individual's ability to see the greater truth about life. Living in the Great Plains, nature must be in balance. It is better not to do anything. It is unknown what affect people have on the environment. It is already proven, during the Dust Bowl, that changes to the land have deadly consequences.

There is currently an issue because of the over-population of California. They constantly need drinking water. The area is naturally humid. It is next to the ocean; however, they were constantly making changes to the land to accommodate people. Now there is a shortage of drinkable water. They ask surrounding states for water, yet have not thought of plans to redirect water to increase supply.

Utah is essentially a desert. There are few explanations for why anyone can live here. Ditches to connect rain water are visible in the older neighborhoods. You can see how ditches collect water from rain and become rivers that settle in parks. It is visible at Sugar House Park.

These ditches are not connected to sewers. Currently, a commercial asks people to use drain pans to ensure oil, car fluids, soap and poison do not mix with drain water. While it is not drinking water, it is the water supply for most of the wildlife living within the city.

There is pressure for Utah to provide drinking water to Californians. There is a proposal to clean the Great Salt Lake. It is a huge lake; however, it is unknown what the lake provides to the entire geographical region around the Great Salt Lake.

Considering rainfall, I believe the lake acts as a method for collecting moisture. Several lakes and streams send water to the lake. The saline assists in producing a steady flow of humidity into the air. It is most obvious in the winter when storms begin over the lake.

This steady flow of humidity is probably why the area is not a desert. Turning the water into drinkable water and pumping it out of the lake could destroy the entire surrounding environment. We could gain drinking water and make the area uninhabitable. The water is sent to California to deal with over-population, yet millions of people here would move there. The problem becomes increasingly difficult.

Methods to stop reactive behavior begin when becoming proactive. It will be a considerable amount of time to make real changes.

It would be wonderful to always know the right answers to everything. Unlike a test at a university, there is no answer sheet. It is important to learn the methods to finding answers. When finding answers, it is easy to see cause-and-effect. Sometimes a person feels foolish. It is clear what the problem is after finding an answer, yet there is no method of traveling back in time to prevent it from happening.

Do not always spend time wishing for a time machine. It is frequently better to take time assessing information and experimenting with ideas to build a productive and proactive plan. One of the most difficult aspects to test marketing is waiting. A person must wait a few months to decide if it is productive or ineffective. After that time, they have new plans or make modifications. If you do not wait, there is no information to have better ideas. Reacting to everything frequently causes more pain and hardship on everyone. It is better to suffer while finding a better plan than continually make problems worse.

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