There’s a misconception of what is in fact common sense and it is far to common. There are a lot of things that people, especially, black people label as common sense that are questionable, for lack of a better word. The best way to get to the bottom of what is real and what ain’t is by focusing on facts. That means ignoring opinion and emotion as both can be not only temporary, but also quite unreliable.
According to the dictionary, common sense refers to good sense and sound judgement in practical matters. Practical matters as in matters concerned with or related to practice versus theory. In English, common sense is the act of using your brain in matters you have experienced or acting based off the negative and positive consequences in situations you’ve already encountered. Have you ever heard the saying, “if you know better, you’ll do better”?
Can you learn from your mistakes or is history doomed to repeat itself?
Here are some common sayings that double as truths or common sense you should know to live a more efficient and full life.
“If you do what is easy, life will be hard. If you do what is hard, life will be easy.” I heard this quote from Les Brown, during one of his motivational speeches. The meaning I have gathered is whatever level of effort you put into your life, a goal, a relationship in the beginning, the opposite level of effort will be required long term.
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“A closed mouth don’t get fed.” My mom always used to say this to me as a kid, I believe as a way to encourage me to speak up more myself. I think it comes from the way baby birds are fed, but what I gathered from it is if I don’t say what I think, how will others know? It’s helpful in learning to voice your opinion.
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“A hard head makes a soft a**.” Here’s another great phrase my mom used to always say to me lol. Apparently, I was a hard headed child.. some people might say I still don’t like to listen to reason. The phrase comes from whoopins, inferring soft butt cheeks hurt more than firm butt cheeks and if you don’t listen it makes the lesson in a mistake worse.
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“It’s a mindset thang.” Funny story I heard this saying used in a prank recently by social media comedian Funny Marco. Although, it’s not how he used it per say lol, the saying is still very much hold value. Life is really a mindset thing, depending on what you mindset is will determine what you life can and will become. This phrase to me means if you can believe it, you can achieve it. “It” can be whatever you want it to be.
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“Time is money.” I’m not certain where this quote originated, but I hear it so often and I’m sure you may have heard it once or twice. The saying means exactly what it says. Time costs money and money costs time, the two are one in the same. When you spend one, you may as well be spending the other. Know the value of your time.
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“If you can’t do for you, you can’t do for anyone else.” I came up with this saying sort of, paraphrasing what flight attendants say to all passengers prior to take off. You know, when they let you know in case of emergency, in reference to face masks for breathing, get yourself together first before you attempt to help someone else. The meaning I gathered from this is before doing something for others make sure it’s something I can do for myself to avoid us both being negatively affected.
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“Misery loves company” and “Stay away from the unlucky and unfortunate”. In the same way that a smile is contagious, so is a negative attitude. If you hang around a bunch of negative people, you will become the next negative person. That being said, if you want to be successful, the chances of that happening are very high when you surround yourself with success driven people.
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“Just because you are not breaking the “rules” does not mean you ain’t doing something stupid.” This isn’t really a common saying, but it is something I heard, that I happen to find valuable. Some people believe rules are only guidelines to follow if in doubt, not laws. That being said, this phrase means you can do something stupid and also follow the rules. So just because the rules don’t say no or you can’t do something does not mean yes, you should.
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“What you won’t do, someone else will.” In some way shape or form I’ve heard this saying frequently over my lifetime. Most times it was in reference to relationships, as a way to invoke action out of fear. Fear of losing ones lover to another, someone, who is willing to go to heights you may not aspire to reach. It’s true, there is always someone that will do or say what you will not. What does that mean for you?
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“There’s nothing to fear, but fear itself.” As a kid I didn’t really understand how deep fear could go. Like initially, there was no fears beyond spiders, clowns, and horror films. Fears can get so deep psychologically, that they affect you physically. A fear of failure, for example, could be the end of the future of your dreams if you cannot get it under control. This saying is just reminding you the only fear to actually fear is fear itself.
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“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” I think I heard this quote from Lebrun James, it means for every time you don’t try, you’ve already failed. Yeah, if you try something new, everything you’re thinking that could go wrong might just go wrong. Everything could also go right, but that can only happen when you actually try that new thing. Don’t over think it, just do it.
Conclusion
Common sense isn’t really all that common as people assume it is. The ‘tell all’ guide that lays out every single common sense fact known to man does not exist. In this article, we discussed a few quotes and sayings that I’ve heard other people use from time to time that can double as common sense ideology. If an idea or fact rather, makes sense to majority of the people it’s presented to, 9 times out of 10 you can consider it to be common sense. After all, common sense is just the good sense and judgment one gains from their previous experiences.
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