Broken Window
Imagine you walking on a road where there is litter everywhere. The chances are we would be fine with throwing some trash from our bag onto the road since there is anyway so much trash around. There is a high probability that our internal consciousness would allow us to do that. Now imagine the same we walking on a clean road. Would we even think of throwing any trash on that road? No we won’t.
Imagine an abandoned building with a broken window. If someone gives you a rock in your hand, then changes are high that you would be fine throwing that aiming towards other windows. Again our internal consciousness might allow us to do that. But swap it with a nicely done building with no broken window? We won’t even think twice throwing rock around.
This is called the “Broken Window Theory”.
This concept was battle tested during 1990–2010 in New York City Subway System where the crime rate was on the rise. Few simple fixes such as not letting a subway carriage to be in service with a Graffiti on it. A Graffiti on its own is not the problem. The problem is when people saw them on New York Subways it gave a sense that no one is in charge and they are allowed to cross the morale line and commit minor to major crimes. Once the Graffiti disappeared from the carriages, the crime rate came down crashing.
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But we are not here today to discuss about Crime Theories or Morale Consciousness. But to use this theory in our personal life to fix those gaps which if not fixed in time can lead to major issues down the road.
Now imagine a couple happily married for years and with a settled life. Suddenly one-day people see them arguing loudly on the road. The first thought will be dramatic and assumptions about their life and marriage health will be formed. All the years of togetherness and happiness will be immediately questioned because of that one event, the event which in this case is acting as a Broken Window in their House of Marriage!
Imagine an experienced cab drive with a driving record as clean as a glass. But one judgement error and his experience and expertise as a driver will be put under microscope.
Sports stars who invest their life into learning and perfecting a sport are often questioned for their abilities and intend when they fail to perform in just one game!
A generally well behaved child when found stealing a pencil from his classmate’s bag is a broken window not only for him/her but for his/her parents as well. Their parenting is now questioned!
A quarter of bad financial earning rings a bell in mind of investors even though its track record has been spotless so far.
So be aware of any such broken windows around in your life and fix them immediately before they turn your life into an abandoned building.
