I've been thinking a lot about cause and effect lately. I think it's a concept most people are familiar with, but one that many people give very little thought to in day-to-day behaviors.
It's easy to say that most prisoners weren't thinking about cause and effect when they committed their crimes, and you'd be mostly right in saying so.
But in the same way someone justifies a cookie "just this once" when they are dieting, a criminal often goes through the same sort of rationalization in his behavior. You'll be hard pressed to find a prisoner who expected to be caught. I've said before that if you lie to yourself often enough, you'l soon come to believe your own lies. And expecting to "get away with it" is a big lie. So, maybe it starts with a lie that you have a right to something that belongs to another. And then it won't hurt them if you take it because insurance will cover it. Soon those 'smaller' lies graduate to something much more dangerous.
The effect of compounding compromises is devastating. It takes a lot of discipline and strength of character to refuse to accept wrong thinking, but it's essential to preventing wrong behavior. For all wrong behavior starts with wrong thinking.
So the next time you start making excuses for yourself, no matter how small, remember that ever decision you make in your mind reinforces a belief from which future behavior is born.
