Careful What You Wish For

Careful What You Wish For

Idiom Definitions for 'Be careful what you wish for'

• If you get things that you desire, there may be unforeseen and unpleasant consequences.
• ('Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.' and 'Be careful what you wish for; you may receive it.' are also used.)

How many of us remember telling our parents in our growing up years: “if only I can have this one thing I want, I will never ask for anything else.”  Without exception soon after we got what we wanted something better came along that we wished for. 

One of the things that I remember wishing for was my first car, well, guess what with it came responsibility.  Buying the fuel and maintenance for it, paying for insurance.  Tires, and rims, not to mention tighter restrictions.  Even though I could go anywhere (transportation wise), I wasn’t allowed.

My personal budget got so that I had to plan what I wanted to do for the weekend, because I may not have the flexibility to catch a movie, eat out or go roller skating all on the same weekend.  My friends that didn’t have their own wheels were everywhere, just like I used to be, even if their parents had to drop them off.   I guess if you don’t mind the consequences, it was still ok, because I didn’t know it then (until Happy Days came out) but I was the Fonzi of my crowd.

The same applies to everything in life, try if you can to look ahead at all possible outcomes beyond the obvious because there are consequences to everything we do.  Consequences are also known as side effects (unplanned outcomes), and the worst part is that in some cases, once a decision is made, you cannot get a do-over.

The best is yet to come….