Most people don’t mess things up because they’re dumb.
They mess things up because they move too fast.
A letter shows up in the mail.
Your phone buzzes.
Someone says something that doesn’t sound right.
Your stomach tightens.
That’s the moment.
Not the big moment later.
Not the court date.
Not the hospital visit.
Not the family fight.
The moment before all that.
That’s where things go wrong.
Think about how it usually happens.
You’re fine.
You’re doing your day.
Then something hits you sideways.
A doctor says something you don’t understand.
A bill doesn’t look right.
A boss sends a short email.
A family member says something sharp.
Your head starts racing.
You want to answer.
You want to fix it.
You want it over.
So you move.
That’s when people make the call they regret.
Nobody plans to screw things up.
Nobody wakes up thinking,
“Today I’ll make a bad decision.”
It happens because the body moves first.
Hands type.
Mouth answers.
Feet walk in the wrong direction.
The brain shows up late.
Here’s the part nobody tells you.
You don’t need better advice.
You don’t need smarter ideas.
You don’t need more information.
You need time.
Not a lot of it.
Just enough to keep yourself from doing something dumb.
That’s where the Home Guardian comes in.
Not to tell you what to do.
Not to make the choice for you.
Just to give you somewhere to stop.
When something hits you fast,
you don’t answer right away.
You turn to the Home Guardian.
You can type what happened.
You can paste the email.
You can show it the letter.
You can tell it what you’re afraid of.
You don’t have to be clear.
You don’t have to be calm.
You just don’t move yet.
Think about a fire extinguisher.
You don’t keep it because you love fires.
You keep it because when one starts, it’s already too late to go shopping.
You don’t argue with the fire.
You don’t explain yourself to it.
You don’t rush toward it with good intentions.
You stop.
You grab the extinguisher.
You slow things down.
That’s the whole point.
The Home Guardian works the same way.
Most problems in life don’t start big.
They start small and fast.
A quick answer.
A rushed decision.
A reply sent too soon.
That’s the spark.
Here’s the simple rule.
If something makes your chest tighten,
don’t answer yet.
If something makes you angry,
don’t answer yet.
If something scares you,
don’t answer yet.
If you feel rushed,
don’t answer yet.
Turn to the Home Guardian first.
This isn’t about being calm.
You don’t have to be calm.
You can be mad.
You can be scared.
You can be confused.
You just don’t act while you are.
Most people think waiting means losing.
It doesn’t.
Waiting is how you keep control.
The person who rushes is the one being pushed.
Look back at the worst decisions you’ve ever made.
They didn’t happen on slow days.
They didn’t happen when you felt steady.
They happened when something hit you fast.
That’s not a character flaw.
That’s human.
What people need isn’t something that hugs them and says everything will be okay.
They already tell themselves that.
What they need is something that says:
“Stop.
Not yet.
Show me what you’re looking at.”
That’s the Home Guardian.
You don’t use it every day.
You use it when things feel off.
When the paper doesn’t make sense.
When the email sounds wrong.
When the choice feels heavy.
Because once you move,
you can’t pull it back.
You can’t unsend the email.
You can’t un-say the words.
You can’t undo the signature.
Most of the time, nothing happens.
But when it does,
you don’t rise to the moment.
You fall to your habits.
So the habit has to be simple.
Stop.
Turn to the Home Guardian.
Then move.
That’s not weakness.
That’s how grown people stay out of trouble.
And the ones who don’t?
They weren’t stupid.
They just moved too fast.
The Faust Baseline™Purchasing Page – Intelligent People Assume Nothing
micvicfaust@intelligent-people.org
© 2026 The Faust Baseline LLC
All rights reserved.






