Cross-posted from Day 75- Redefining and Living Careful
Self-Allocation
“Be careful” I was often told during my childhood. Rarely did I want to listen. Usually, it was because I was doing something exciting or challenging and that was the expression I wanted to take. Eventually, I came to assign a negative value to ‘Careful’ because I didn’t like it being imposed upon me. Another example is when I was driving with someone in the car and they, panicking, said “Be careful!” when it wasn’t really a situation where I wasn’t “being careful.” In fact, being careful became such a negative thing in my life that I took on an entire personality of being ‘Careless,’ that eventually became ‘Reckless’ and caused a lot of consequences for me in my life.
Dictionary Definition
care·ful
/ˈkerfəl/
adjective
adjective: careful; superlative adjective: carefullest
- making sure of avoiding potential danger, mishap, or harm; cautious.
"I begged him to be more careful” - done with or showing thought and attention.
"a careful consideration of the facts”
Sounding of the Word
Care-full
Care: To give proper attention to; to love
Full: To the maximum capacity; to the optimal level
Investigating the Word
When I was forced to be careful as a child, I resented that. I wanted to act as I was acting at the time, and didn’t understand fully what it meant to be careful, other than to do something in a way someone else wanted it to be done- not how I wanted it to be done. Eventually, I assigned a negative value to being careful, and expressed carelessness throughout my life. While the intentions of authority figures telling me to be careful was to avoid harm or danger, I interpreted that as being forced to do something a certain way when I was fully capable of doing it my way. However, I didn’t really consider and incorporate into my vocabulary and thus living the second definition of careful, which is done with or showing thought and attention. Very little of what I had in my childhood was explained to me as being mine and so I never had much incentive to care about the things in my reality. I was made to understand that it was my parents’ house I lived in, as if I was a guest there, so when I was assigned chores to do, I was only careful to the extent that I did a good enough job to have my work acknowledged by my parents. I didn’t understand that people were careful with their things because they cared about them and themselves and wanted to make the best out of their lives.
Creative Phase
Careful is taking care of everything in my reality without becoming overwhelmed but by exercising common sense.
Being careful is not doing things that hurt my body but taking care of the basic things in my life to allow me to live my life to the fullest extent possible
Careful is extending care to myself and others to reach my optimum potential
Careful is expressing the proper amount of care to myself and others
Final Definition
Careful is expressing the proper amount of care to myself and others