Wise lesson on decision making

                                                                Image credit: Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke on pixabay

Having talked all this season on decision making, I have now arrived at a point where I landed up to this book, "Yes or No: The Guide to Better Decisions. "

Hello readers,

Here, I want to ask you, What can I do to make the best decision in my life?

You all might say, consult, seek advice, and review your resources. 

I too would have jumped into the same pond and responded the same way. This book taught me the other way around.

The guide here said, "There is no best decision rather we make better decisions."

He added, "To make a better decision I first stop proceeding with a poor decision."

This sounded weird. How will I make a better decision by stopping because, if I stop here, how will I get the better portion? 

Let me simplify this in this way:

I want hot tea in my cup which is full. 

There are two possible ways, one by pouring the hot tea in the cup which might spill the tea and we will not get any hot tea to drink. 

The second way is to empty the cup and then pour the hot tea. This works well and we get good hot tea. 

The same is true with decision-making. When I have witnessed that something is not working, I must not keep doing that. It is of no use. For example, consider a lock. We might have so many keys but they are of no use because the mechanics which is in this lock cannot be put into action with the keys I have been working with for so long. When we know something has not worked that means it is not a good fit. We need to replace that with a new one. Hence, to make better decisions make room to accommodate the new ideas. Kick off the old ones so the new ones can hop in. 

We keep doing what we know doesn't work. This is because we feel safe, even though it is dangerous. 

Let me narrate a story here,

Many years ago, the US army wanted to get off more rapid rounds of cannon fire, hence, hired a consultant to study the problem. He went into the field and noticed that the soldiers stepped back from the cannon and waited for 3 seconds every time before they fired the cannon. The consultant inquired about their move. They replied that they were following the instructions laid down in the army manual. 

    This made the consultant look into all the back issues of the army manual. There he found the instructions were laid during the Civil War when the soldiers were advised to step back from their weapons before firing so they could hold the gun horse's head. Otherwise, the horses would jolt, jerking the cannons from their targets. 

In the present scenario, there are no horses whose heads have to be held to stabilise our targets but still, we are following the instructions blindly. 

We all do this unconsciously or sometimes consciously also because we do not want to be uncomfortable in our decisions. We want the well-laid paths even though they lead us nowhere. Try to dig deep into what you are doing and why you are doing it?

The listener was very much impressed and assured by the guidance offered by the guide. For me also this was insightful. Another interesting fact came up when the listener requested the guide " Can I tell you about the decisions I need to make at my work and in the house? We jump to pillars and posts to seek help in making our own decisions. 

The guide refused to listen and said, "Your decisions are yours, and not mine."

Very true, the decisions are supposed to be mine for they belong to my crisis situation or necessity. I will understand it much better than anyone else. But still, we run to people to give us answers. We are supposed to learn from people, places, and situations and apply them in various contexts in our lives. If we follow this then we will soon be able to make better decisions. 

I will close this discussion with this question and answer: "If you want to drive west and suddenly you discover that you are going east. What will you do then? "

So, the moment we discover we are on the wrong track, we stop and analyse and redirect ourselves in the right direction. This is the lesson. 

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024

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