How To MAKE Decisions Right

The reality of human existence is fundamentally simple--each of us is free to choose.  That of course creates almost infinite complexity as each individual's choices channel and limit their future possibilities as well as affecting others.  Your plans and actions can impact mine and mine can impact yours.  In the face of such complexity and uncertainty it's no wonder that many people through the ages have sought absolution from the consequences of their choices by essentially denying the existence of individual agency.

The Delusion of Destiny and the Folly of Fate 

Uncertainty about the future is a universal dilemma of humanity.  Decisions would be so much simpler if we could know the outcome in advance.  For some people the seemingly random outcomes of life can be attributed to luck, fate, or immutable destiny.

Traditional usage defines fate as a power or agency that predetermines and orders the course of events. Fate defines events as ordered or "inevitable" and unavoidable. Classical and European mythology features three goddesses dispensing fate, known as Moirai in Greek mythology, as Parcae in Roman mythology, and as Norns in Norse mythology. They determine the events of the world through the mystic spinning of threads that represent individual human fates.  In Christian theology John Calvin proposed the doctrine of predestination which asserts that all events have been willed by God who wills eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others.

The concepts of fate, luck, destiny, and predestination may seem attractive in that they absolve us of responsibility, but they do so by making us all out to be victims of whims of forces outside of our control.  They require acceptance of a supreme-being(s) that is(are) capricious and unjust, and who acts out a mathematical impossibility (i.e. having control of and foresight into every choice and act of every person, animal, and natural process).

MAKE Your Decisions Right

In the real world most of our decisions are made unconsciously in our mind because it would take too much time to sit down and list the pros and cons of each decision we must make on a daily basis.  We act by habit or intuition (i.e. beliefs that we can't justify by inference or the use of reason).  However, we all regularly face choices that are significant enough that we must face them in our conscious minds (e.g. what major to pick in college, how to make significant purchases like a car, who to marry, what job to take, what house to buy etc.).  Big corporations sometimes make complex decisions involving millions of dollars using methodologies known collectively as "decision analysis" (a term coined by Ronald A. Howard, a professor at Stanford University).  These methods factor in probabilities, uncertainties, and trade-offs between conflicting objectives.  Most of us, however use a combination of logic and intuition to make our choices.

The approach you use to make your decision is far less important than what you do afterward to ensure that your decision was right.  When I was in college I went to some leadership training conducted by a former insurance executive named Charlie Jones.  What he taught about making choices resonated with me and has given me confidence in decision-making throughout my life.

"God didn't make very many men who could make a right decision, but He made a few who could make a decision right. Don’t wait until you can make the right decision. Make a decision and then make it right; you have your whole life to do it in."
— Charlie Jones — Insurance Executive, Lecturer, Author

The central principle of this philosophy is that you can't know in advance whether any particular decision will absolutely lead to a positive outcome, but after making a decision you can commit yourself to it in such a way that you create a positive outcome.  Rather than agonize about whether you're making the right choice spend your energy turning your choice into the right one by what you do to make it successful.

Every major decision we make will likely seem to have been WRONG for a long time before it ever seems to be right.  The result is that many of us will quit before we succeed.  That's one of the primary reasons for the high divorce rate, the significant turnover rate in people's jobs, the material number of small-business failures, and the losses many people experience with their investments.

Charlie Jones' advice probably resonated with me because it aligned so well with the advice I'd received from my mother about how to have a successful marriage, but I have also applied the same principles to my career moves, to my health choices, and to our decisions about where to live.  It has proven to be a correct principle again and again.  It is what has allowed me to retire early, to hit my target weight, and to find peace and happiness in nearly every circumstance I've encountered.  It is true that there are innumerable barriers to achieving our goals but we can overcome the barriers by relentlessly and optimistically doing the drudgery and tackling the tough stuff required to achieve what we set out to do.  My mom was a great example blooming where she was planted.

"Successful people have the habit of doing things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either, necessarily, but their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose."
— Albert E Gray — Insurance Executive, trainer

The secret to success is neither foresight nor brilliance but endurance...to keep slogging along with a smile on your face until you reach the end.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
― Calvin Coolidge ― US President

We are indeed free to choose, but the really important choices we make come after the decision.