How a bad decision can ruin your life

The things that can ruin your life have been passed down through the ages. They are not secrets.

You can find a list of the things you ought not to do everywhere, in the Bible’s commandments, the ancient wisdom of all religions, wise sayings, and boring life advice from grandma.

Lies, cheating, stealing, murder, drinking, drugs, gambling, debt, impulsivity, sloth, and promiscuity can lead to danger and ruin, sometimes as a slow drip and sometimes as a sudden end.

Unlike the circumstances of your birth, decisions are things you control, and they can make your circumstances infinitely worse or dramatically better, notes performance coach Blaz Kos.

You can make a very bad single decision that changes the course of your life for the worse. Go to Vegas, blow your savings, and come back to face no hope of buying that house you saved for. But if you still have your job, transportation, and a reasonable credit score, you can live through it, kicking yourself all the way.

Often, personal ruin comes from a series of bad decisions. You hook up with an attractive but dishonest person. The love interest steals from you, causing money problems. You forgive, then you fight. The person destroys your car in anger. Now you are broke with no transportation. You are depressed and don’t go to work. Now you are fired, broke, with no transportation. You lose your apartment, now you are homeless. It was a series of bad decisions that started with an untrustworthy person.