We run across a lot of information daily. Do you ever get into the habit of shrugging off advice or guidance as common sense knowledge that you won’t be able to benefit from? This is even more the case when we see the same advice provided constantly in one location or another. If you label something as “common sense”, but you aren’t using it, then there is something difficult about it that is keeping it from becoming your “common habit”.
What Is Common Sense?
With regard to this, it is vital that we look at what “common sense” is purported to mean, and what it would be better if it represented. We might say that brushing your teeth a certain amount of times a day is “common sense”, but there are plenty of people who don’t match the “2 times a day” that they see as “common sense” on a regular basis. This means that they are indirectly saying they are not able to keep up with a habit that they see as obvious. This shows that there is a disconnect. There has to be an issue in place, because if you think something is common knowledge, but are not making use of that common knowledge, then you either don’t really have that common knowledge, or don’t see that knowledge has to be implemented for any real-world changes to take place.
There Is More Than Meets The Eye
The problem here is that we take the activity as a distinct item of its own, without connecting it to all the parts necessary to make it happen. With the tooth-brushing example, it may be obvious to you that brushing a certain amount of times per day is a smart concept, and that any less times would be deleterious to the health of your teeth, but you may be leaving out factors that allow for brushing to occur. Maybe you don’t make time for it to occur, and therefore it does not occur and you become frustrated. Maybe you have a habit of constantly eating throughout the day, and brushing your teeth would get in the way.
Advice You Get Usually Includes Many Parts That Are Left Unsaid
When you see tips like “sleep early enough” or “read a book a week”, you will want to avoid calling those obvious and moving on. “Read a book a week” doesn’t just mean to read a book a week, but means that one should take all the steps to get into that habit, including setting time for reading, finding books of interest, finding motivational factors to keep the process going, building up one’s vocabulary to assist in the process, joining a book club, looking for an online forum to present interesting points from the book, etc. You probably already have a 100% success ratio on the tips that are a one-step deal to advantage, but most tips represent multiple activities to engage in to maintain a habit.
Common Sense Is Better Viewed As “The Common Sense You Want”
The next time you see a tip and are quick to pass it off as obvious material that a child would know, ask yourself if you are using it, and if not, look for the difficulty that keeps you from making it part of your day-to-day. There is usually something in the process that is more complex than the tip first looks to be. “Common sense” is only common sense if you implement it at all times, or else it has been mislabeled.