If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that you should always fill out forms correctly.

When you go to apply for a job, you fill out a form. When you go to the hospital, you fill out a form. When you pay your income taxes or claim your tax refund, you fill out a form. We have forms for schools, for groceries, for retirement, for marketing loyalty clubs and even for social media settings. Forms are how we adjust and translate the world for what we need, want and expect. We don't always get what we want and, more importantly, how we fill out forms can have a huge impact on our lives. 

Most people today think of forms as bureaucracy, but ignoring them can lead to bad things happening. Just take, for example, our recent former President Donald Trump. His attorneys didn't fill out a form correctly. Now his fraud trial won't have a jury. Bench trials, or those decided by a judge only, are notorious for being much harder to win, especially if your case is very weak legally. Judges could care less about emotions. They are experts at reading and applying the law without concern about how people feel about it. As as result, simple form may have just dramatically impacted President Trump's legal position, and it was entirely avoidable if his attorney had paid better attention.

So, take a lesson from all of the above. Read your forms carefully. The fine print can be painful.