Decisions!

Day in and day out we go through life busily making decisions. It could well be argued that we are little more than decision-making machines and each decision brings with it a call to action. Many times that call to action is to take no action.

And, inaction is certainly a form of action.

Each day we make hundreds of decisions and it is the actions taken from those decisions that have collectively forged us into who we are today.

Every success and every failure is the result of actions taken, or not taken, resulting from decisions made.

Included in all of this are those actions we have taken despite knowing full well they are not in our best interest. At these times we have made the decision to override our own senses and go ahead anyway.

Every Action Brought Us Here

In working with many clients over the years I have been a strong advocate for what I call, Directional Decision-Making.

Our lives are never static. We are always in motion. This means we always moving in a direction and that direction is only one of the many available to us.

Think of it this way. Each time we decide to do something, we are also making a decision to not do something different, and each time we decide to not do something, we are also deciding to do something else instead.

By our every action we are either moving towards something or away from something. Directional Decision-Making is a powerful method of evaluating the consequences of each decision before deciding which action to take.

For example, if you are working hard to bring your weight down, a good use of directional decision-making, when faced with the difficult choice of saying yes to that piece of chocolate cake that looks so tantalizing and smells so delicious, is to ask yourself this question: Will eating this move me closer towards, or further away from, achieving my goal?

Ask Yourself This

A salesperson, struggling to find the inner motivation and drive to continue making sales calls rather than the more comfortable and enjoyable task of preparing a proposal, may well ask: Will making these calls move me closer to, or further away from my sales objectives?

And perhaps that person contemplating a career change with full knowledge of the associated risks, may find strength in the answer to the question: Will quitting my job and taking this risk provide me the possibility of creating the lifestyle I’ve always dreamed of and which will never be available to me in my current career, or will it move my dream even further away?

Asking directional questions does not mean we will always choose the answer that will move us towards where we want to be. There will be times when we deliberately choose to take actions that move us further away from our goals, but Directional Decision Making will always ensure that whichever decision we make, is being made with full conscious awareness of all consequences.

Lewis Carroll told us, “When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

Directional Decision-Making will lead us to the road which will get us there and help us avoid the roads to somewhere else.

The road you choose will loudly tell you what really is important to you.

Exercise wisely your power of choice.

Till we read again.