“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
~ Jim Rohn
I think we’ve all had those kind of days where we say “Calgon, take me away!” Yet when we think these kinds of things, we are totally dis-empowering ourselves. Do we really expect some white knight in shining armour to carry us off to paradise?? Peter Pan to swoop in to the rescue and whisk us off to Never-Never land ??
The fact is, the only person who will ever rescue you from your life’s circumstances is you. And it all boils down to decision making.
While it’s wonderful to have a spouse or partner to share our life journey (and often times come to the rescue!), it’s equally important that we learn how to share in decision making. Unless we make the decision to fly solo, there will always be a you, a me and an us.
Add family matters on top of that – children and/or aging parents – and decision making can become and even greater challenge !!
Over the next couple of days, we are going to be focusing on decision making in all aspects of our lives. I’m really looking forward to it !! I hope you are too 🙂
Yesterday, from the book “Optimal Living 360”, I shared the set of Core Assets, which we all must manage, in order to thrive, and to make the most out of our time here on planet earth.
I’ve referred to it in the past as the “Wheel of Wellness”, or in this case it’s developing a healthy and growing relationship towards each of our ASPIREationS …
Assets
Safety
Physically
Intellectually
Relationships
Economically
Spiritually
And over the next few days, we’ll be taking a look at decision making in each of these areas of our lives. Our objective is to get our biggest return on investment, while being cognizant of the law of diminishing returns. We also are going to want to keep in mind what he terms CAPS, or Core Asset Protection Strategies. Once we’ve got things in balance, how do we protect them and keep them there?
As we make our way around the wheel, we will be analyzing our choices and freedom to make decisions through a 7 Step Integrated Decision Making Model. When we take one bit at a time, and break down our options, life doesn’t become so overwhelming …. Inch by inch, life’s a cinch!
Here’s how we are going to go about it:
The 7 Step Integrated Decision Model
———————
1. Define the problem (our target, our goal, our purpose).
2. Frame the problem (which core assets does the problem effect).3. Develop all options (collect reliable & relevant data).
4. Analyze our options (pros vs. cons, chances of success vs. failure).
5. Make the decision! (using a process of elimination, we’ll take out what we don’t want. We may go back to step 3 with the remainder).
6. Execute the decision! (Commit. Remember Napoleon Hill … Successful people come to decisions quickly, and change those decisions slowly).
7. Debrief (reflect & learn to use mistakes as stepping stones).
Sounds easy enough right 🙂 Tomorrow, we’ll start around the wheel. Until then, have an absolutely marvelous Friday !!
