Nichols' 4th Law

Nichols' 4th Law says that you should, "Avoid any action with an unacceptable outcome." This is about as straight forward as you can get, but it probably still needs to be broken down. There are those who choose not to accept anything and argue against everything. I would call them naysayers, but they don't really run around saying "nay" so I guess that title is out. I will call them funsuckers, because they have the ability to enter into any conversation and suck the fun right out of it.

In fact, here they are now.................

Ummmm, now.....................................................

Okay, now?

"Every thing can have an unacceptable outcome, so I guess this means we should do nothing. Is that what you are telling us?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. Do nothing. Nothing at all. That shouldn't be hard, right?"

"I do nothing all the time."

"Untrue, doing nothing is impossible. I dare say you are not factually reporting. Care to argue that you do nothing?"

"I don't do anything when I sleep, so there,"spoken with outstretched tongue!

"Actually, you are dreaming, breathing and your muscles are repairing themselves while you are sleeping. Just an FYI, sleeping is not doing nothing. Sleeping is definitely doing something. So is sitting, standing, laying down, playing video games, etc. You are always using muscles and you have neurons firing electrical impulses. Do you have anything else? I thought not."

Now it is true you can do just about anything and have a negative outcome. It is also possible that you can do just about anything and have a positive outcome. Case in point, I heard about a guy who took ecstasy for the first time and was hit by a semi. It was deemed the semi's fault, and the guy who took the ecstasy was awarded $3 million. I would not recommend going out and taking ecstasy to get rich just because of that one occurrence. That is a random, chance occurrence that is highly improbable.

So what we are talking about is outcomes that are likely. We mean you should not be taking any actions that make unacceptable outcomes probable. Here are several example:

1. I don't want to get into a bar fight. Going to bars could lead to this outcome, which I have deemed unacceptable. Therefore I do not go to bars. "That doesn't mean you won't get into any fights, just because you don't go to bars," yells the cynic. "True," I reply, "but the fights I get into won't be bar fights. If it's in a house, it will be a house fight. If it's in the street it will be a street fight, but there is zero probability it will be a bar fight because I do not go to bars."
2. Imagine I don't want to have a baby. I know that having sex can produce babies. In fact, it is one on a very short list of ways babies are created, and the only way for it to happen unplanned. If I have sex and I do not want/am not ready for children, then it could produce an unacceptable outcome so I will not have sex.
3. I don't want to go to jail. I know there are multiple things that could cause me to go to jail. They range from murder to theft to doing drugs and on and on. I make sure, to the best of my ability, that I follow the law.

So, what is Nichols' 4th Law? It is using logic and common sense to make informed, positive  choices. Using rational thinking and a process of elimination/deduction, you look at the possible LIKELY outcomes of an action before you engage in it. If the outcomes are acceptable, then you take action. If the probable outcomes are not acceptable, then you do not.

I used a hybrid of this that I call, "The 1 Rule That Changed My Life." Before I would engage in something, I would ask myself these 3 questions:

1. If my son or daughter was standing here, would I say or do this?
2. If Jesus was standing here, would I say or do this?
3. Is this something I want my son or daughter to do?

If I could not answer yes to all three of these questions, I had no business doing it myself. I get more indepth with the explanation of the rule here: http://spiritualspackle.blogspot.com/2011/10/1-rule-that-changed-my-life.html

Let us use "The 1 Rule that Changed My Life" with drug usage. For starters, do you want your children to watch you doing drugs? Would you get high if you were standing next to Jesus? Finally, do you want your children to do drugs when they grow up? Not will they experiment or will they do drugs, but do you want them to? If your answer to any of these questions is no, then you should not do drugs. So I know I should not do drugs. How do I most readily accomplish this?

Nichols' 4th Law states that I should avoid any action that would make me doing drugs a possibility. I know that being around people who do drugs and going to places where drugs are abundant could enable me to use drugs. Therefore, I avoid playgrounds and playmates where drugs are likely to be in use. It is that simple. If I am not around drugs they are hard for me to do. If I do not do them and my kids know I don't do them, they are less likely to use themselves. That is what I call a win/win situation.

That is why Nichols' 4th Law is important; it forces us to think before we act. So I hope that you can apply this law to your life. After all, it makes you think. What could be more important than that?