On Thought and Spontaneity

I had always held the belief, and quite strongly I must admit, to the philosophy that one must never take any action, any and all action, without great deliberation and thought. Thoughtless actions, I believed, created unintended consequences, and more often than not these consequences were invariably of the unpleasant kind. Were one not careful one could end up taking thoughtless actions and creating unintended consequence, only to take more actions, equally thoughtless naturally, to mitigate those consequences, and so on in an endless spiral of action and consequence cycle.

It is all very well, this theory of thoughtful actions and its ability to prevent unintended consequences, but does following this theory to the letter cause one to forfeit something in life? In other words, is there an unintended consequence associated with premeditated actions, the kind that deliberation is precisely meant to avert? After some thought on this matter, I have arrived at a different and rather surprising conclusion.

One must never devote too much thought to everything, particularly to matter of the heart. While many things in life are worth great thought, and I whole-heartedly endorse thought, it does have the nasty habit of killing spontaneity, and nothing is more unglamorous and tedious than premeditated actions. To be sure, too much thought can indeed rob life of joy. Consider all the portraits that you have seen of great thinkers - from Aristotle to Socrates, from Hume to Leibnitz to Kant – one cannot recall even a hint of a smile on any of their thoughtful faces. Regrettably, too much thought can have that unfortunate effect on one. It is wonderful to ponder our actions, to analyze and dissect them, but the conclusions drawn should be left strictly as lessons for the future generations to follow. To quote Oscar Wilde, "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."