There is an old saying that goes, “Common sense is a flower that does not grow in every garden.” I used to think it was just a clever expression. The older I get, the more I wonder if it should be engraved on the entrance to every parking lot, grocery store, and government building.
Whatever happened to common sense?
I’m not talking about solving calculus problems or explaining quantum physics. I’m talking about the basic life lessons most of us learned before we were old enough to ride a bicycle. Don’t touch the stove. It’s hot. Look both ways before crossing the street. Don’t run with scissors. Don’t put metal in the microwave. If someone yells, “Duck!”… don’t stand there wondering why.
These weren’t controversial life philosophies. They were survival tips. Somewhere along the way, however, common sense seems to have become optional. Coffee cups have to remind us that coffee is hot. Ladders have warning labels telling us not to stand on the top step. Plastic bags remind us not to use them as scuba equipment. And somewhere, somehow, a company had to create a label because somebody actually tried it.
Then there are the everyday moments that make you wonder if common sense quietly packed its bags and moved to the countryside. The shopping cart sitting six feet from the cart return. The person who parks directly in front of the fire lane because they’ll “only be a minute.” The driver who flies through a thunderstorm at eighty miles an hour with hazard lights flashing, as if blinking lights somehow repeal the laws of physics. The customer who stops in the middle of the grocery aisle, turns their cart sideways, answers a phone call, and suddenly transforms aisle seven into a traffic study.
Every one of us has watched these moments unfold and thought the same thing. “Really?”
But maybe the biggest change isn’t that common sense has become less common. Maybe it’s that we’ve become remarkably skilled at separating actions from consequences. When something predictable happens after an unwise decision, our first instinct is often to search for someone else to blame. The coffee was too hot. The sidewalk was too slippery. The warning wasn’t clear enough. The instructions weren’t specific enough.
At some point we stopped asking, “What could I have done differently?” and started asking, “Whose fault is this?” That’s a dangerous trade.
Because common sense has never been about knowing everything. It’s about recognizing that actions have consequences. Fire burns. Gravity always wins. Traffic doesn’t stop because we’re distracted. Poor decisions don’t become good decisions simply because we wish the outcome had been different.
Knowledge tells us these things. Wisdom reminds us to live accordingly. And perhaps that’s the real difference. Knowledge fills our minds. Wisdom guides our decisions. Common sense is simply wisdom showing up in everyday life. The truth is, none of us gets it right all the time. I’ve certainly made enough decisions over the years that seemed brilliant at the time and ridiculous in hindsight. That’s called being human.
But wisdom has a way of teaching us if we’re willing to listen. It teaches us to slow down. To think before acting. To accept responsibility instead of looking for excuses. To recognize that not every consequence is an injustice. Sometimes it’s simply the predictable result of the choices we made. Maybe that’s why common sense isn’t as common as we’d like.
It doesn’t grow automatically. Like any flower, it has to be cultivated. It grows in the soil of humility. It’s watered by experience. And it blossoms when we’re willing to learn from yesterday instead of blaming everyone else for today. So perhaps the old saying had it right all along. Common sense really is a flower that doesn’t grow in every garden.
The good news is… Every one of us gets to decide what we’re planting.
Transformation doesn’t begin when we learn something new. It begins when we have the wisdom to live differently because of what we already know.
That principle lies at the heart of Finding Your Transformative Life. Lasting growth isn’t about collecting more information. It’s about cultivating the wisdom to make better choices, accept responsibility, and become the person God created you to be. When wisdom takes root, transformation follows.
Troy P Zehnder 