What is cause and what is effect?

“I can’t do sports because I have a hip injury” – says the aunt, who has always been very overweight…

… It is immediately clear to everyone in the family that the chain of effects is exactly the other way around: Too little exercise has led to obesity, which in turn has led to hip damage in the long term.

What is immediately clear to us in other people is often difficult for us in ourselves: The evil is not tackled at the root because solving the actual problem would be too annoying or exhausting. So, a common avoidance pattern is reversing cause and effect. We then only treat the symptom and do not come to a real solution.

An example from the business context: “We can’t bring the IT in the company up to date because we don’t have money,” said the CIO. It was the other way around: because you didn’t update your IT, you lost competitiveness, and sales dropped.

Clarity about cause and effect – even in language – can help us to actually move forward. So let’s get to the root of problems! This will help you address the real issues – fighting the cause, not the symptom. A headache pill for chronic headaches rarely helps to stop the pain.

Unfortunately, causality is always invisible – and it will probably stay that way. Nevertheless, there are causal relationships from which we can assume. Even when the actual chain of effects is clear, I regularly catch myself confusing cause and effect – in a way that suits my ego best.

If we have a clear view of the cause-and-effect relationship between our problems, we can achieve our goals more quickly – both privately and professionally. If we learn to avoid fallacies, we see reality a little more clearly, even if this may sometimes be more unpleasant than twisting reality to our liking.

Which of your challenges do you use to confuse cause and effect? The answer to this question will take you a big step forward.