Consequences
Consequences are the effects, results or outcome of something that has occured earlier. They are usually unpleasant results of a particular action or situation. For an individual to face consequences there must have been an action. There is no smoke without fire and there is no reaction without an action also every negative action has consequences.

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There must have been ignored or unnoticed red flags, warnings or promptings. But like someone once said, what will be, will be. Some people take unreasonable and careless risks not minding the results, the quest for power, pleasure, riches and fame as led many to do the unthinkable.
Desiring knowledge or power is not wrong, but going over board, not knowing where to draw the line is a problem.
Every deed, every action has consequences, like the third law of motion states, for every action there is an equal, opposite reaction. How then do we deal with the consequences of our actions? Do we accept responsibility, take the blame, make amends and move on or do we try to pretend nothing happened, insist that we are right and keep on threading the path of destruction recklessly?

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES WE EXPERIENCE?
Loss
When a train goes off its normal track, accidents happen, properties get destroyed, lives may be lost.This is what happens when we take actions that bring consequences, someone or people get hurt. At some points in our lives we all tend to miss the mark, by that I mean make mistakes. The only difference is some of us realize early and we withdraw and retrace our steps, some others don’t.

Human beings , as similar as we are , we are more stubborn, more strong willed and more ruthless than each other. We lack patience and contentment and this has cost a lot of people their lives.
Old sayings can never be wrong, no matter how much the new age has tried to modify , change, reconstruct and totally misconstrue these sayings. One of such sayings is that ‘The patient dog eats the fattest bone”. If only we can practice patience and persistence in our daily dealings, we would save ourselves a lot of hassles.

Impact on financial progress and prosperity
There are actions we take which takes it toll on our finances, infact most negative actions end up causing financial difficulties. Wrong decisions, the quest to take short cuts can hamper prosperity.

Loss of personality and reputation
Low self esteem, psychological problems, low self confidence and the likes are all consequences of negative actions.

Dysfunctional behaviours
Dysfunctional behaviours begin to surface when things go wrong, causing deviant behaviours, irresponsible and unethical behaviours such as aggressiveness, poor coordination and passiveness, lack of motivation as well.

Extreme or unplanned challenges
Environmental changes, societal changes, economic downturn all forms of challenges that are never expected, begin to surface.

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Major life events
Life events such as ailments, illness, loss of loved ones or even death may occur because of a wrong action taken

HOW CAN WE DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS?
Dealing with the consequences of your actions means that first you:

Accept responsibility – by this you agree that you have erred and that you are wrong. You accept the blame and accept the fact that there are consequences for your actions which you have to face. Consequences are not from good deeds but bad deeds. So in essence accept that you are wrong and you have been bad.

Forgive yourself– often times than not everybody errs and makes mistakes. It is not a personal thing, you are not the only one who has ever done wrong. Dwelling too long on your mistakes and blaming yourself isn’t the solution. Forgiving yourself is the way forward.

Get help, talk to someone
This helps a great deal, you need strength from good people around .

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Make plans to help and salvage the situation - After accepting that you are wrong and forgiving yourself, you must look around you for ways you can help improve the situation or correct the wrong doings if it is not too late. Look for ways to make it right. It is however never too late to make things right, even if your actions led to someone’s death you can still reach out to the family or loved ones. Or reach out to others in the person’s name.

Finally do not go back – yes, after all is said and done, do not go back to it. Do not get bitten twice, do not make the same mistakes, do not make the same wrong decisions. Learn to say no to the past and forge ahead. You can not keep doing things the same way and expect a different result.

In conclusion, we must remember that our choices are our responsibilities,we must strive today to be better than what we were yesterday.

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Article was contributed by @ponmile

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This article is a community contribution to the @onequality community run magazine. If you would like to know more or be a part of the contributors, please refer to this post. Thank you.