Good morning, folks! I am Jin with Morning Mindfulness Podcast. I hope you are doing great in your corner of the World! Let’s start with a breath and a smile!

What is the Causal Chain?

Let’s pretend…

A student failed a subject. Why?
He missed the exam. Why?
His car did not start. Why?
He did not have money to repair it. Why?
He went to the the casino. Why?
His friend came to town…
and so on.

This is an example of a very simple cause and effect chain.

I want to make a couple of points today.
1. Oftentimes people see the first acceptable cause and use it as an excuse. They forget that this cause is really an effect, just another link in a chain.
2. The final effect, which is failing the subject in our example, is really not the end. It will be a cause for the next link in the chain.
3. I am trying to avoid dead links. In our example, a friend who came to town can be presented as a dead link, something we could not control.

So childish… If friend comes to town, a student could say no and avoid going to casino. So really this is not a friend’s fault. And if he went to the casino, he had total control over his spending habit. Why did he spend money? That’s another chain to explore.

When I have to look at causality in my life, I am trying to dig to the deepest link I can identify and control. I cannot control much the time needed to get from point A to B, but in most of cases I can control at what time I leave point A. And if I can’t, then what’s the next link in the chain I can adjust?

Hope this makes some sense.

Thanks for tuning in! You can subscribe to my podcast on my site HPLN.org.
Now let’s breathe and smile. I will talk to you next time.

PEACE!
Jin

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