September 27, 2021

Weekly Reflections – Decisions!

Decision-making is one of the more difficult things we do in life. I have recently become aware of a book by Andy Stanley that addresses one’s personal decision-making and its impact on one’s own life and the lives of others. It is titled Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets. My sense is that the wisdom contained in this book has more potential for doing good than all of the D&RA work (see below) I was ever associated with during my “working” life. We will look into Better Decisions over the coming few weeks. Today’s Reflection is “edition one.”

Decisions Determine Direction

Your decisions determine the direction and quality of your life. While nobody plans to complicate their life with bad decisions, far too many people have no plan for how they will make good decisions, good choices.

On the other hand, bad decisions can often be corrected by making subsequent GOOD decisions. Yes, our decisions (or choices) create the story of our lives. Let’s make good ones!

Good Questions

Good questions lead to better decisions. Nobody means to choose poorly, but few have a plan to avoid it. Have you ever thought about how you go about making decisions? What questions do you ask? Said another way, behind every good decision are good questions.

We will consider several questions to ask yourself every time you are faced with making a choice or decision–questions that will help you in your finances, relationships, career, and most of all, your spiritual life. And we will learn to “Pause,” “Question,” and “Decide” before moving ahead when something just doesn’t feel right.

This series is intended to help you live differently. It will help you learn from experience and to stop making bad decisions. It will empower you to achieve Godly success in every season of life, for the rest of your life. So, stay tuned!

Peace and Blessings,

P.S. I was once employed as the “Principal Consultant for Investment Appraisal” within a US Fortune 50 corporation. That involved what we call the technology of “Decision and Risk Analysis” or D&RA in our decision-making process. D&RA uses sophisticated analytical techniques to decide whether this or that investment would be appropriate. The process includes first identifying what was known and then those aspects which were not known.

A “Monte Carlo” technique is then used to estimate the probabilities that the various unknowns would occur. For example, a natural-resource discovery is made. But how much is there? How might it be extracted? What will it cost to extract it over what period of time? How will it be transported to market? What might the market price be when it arrives? Are there political risks? Will the tax rules change? Are there other unknowns? Each of these can only be evaluated as a “range” of possibilities, but each can make the difference between proceeding with a profitable development or not. Ah, what fun (if you like that sort of thing)!

Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the Chaplain alone and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of any organization he may be associated with.

Read more Weekly Reflections: Chaplain’s Corner