Tools for making difficult decisions..

Mr Pooky - fish enthusiast

Carrying on from yesterday’s post, I’ve been thinking about the 2nd part to my attempt to impart some life coaching in myself, that’s hopefully not along the lines of something you’d hear from Anthony Robbins. Not meaning to knock the guy – as I think he’s an incredible speaker with untold natural charisma (a bit like Lionel Richie) and has made a fortune from life coaching, but having listened to some of his self help CDs that ended up on one of the servers at work, I realised they’re a bit like an episode of the Two Ronnies where Ronnie Corbett tells an incredibly long winded story for 10 minutes and you realise that it’s contained absolutely zero substance.

“OK! so today we’re going to go through a life affirming tool that we can use to stop procrastination, wake up energised, guarantee 1000% success, this WILL change your life… but first I want to tell you some incredibly long winded and pointless story about some guy I met playing golf and when I went around to his house I met his pet dog – a golden retriever, anyway he had been having all sorts of problems with this dog that had been affecting his golfing handicap and he said to me “Tony I am having all sorts of problems with this dog that’s affecting my golfing handicap, can you help?” and so I said “Yes Doug I can, I totally can help you with that, I’m so glad that you asked me” so we sat down for dinner, and Doug’s wife is a great cook, and we had a 3 course meal, usually I wouldn’t eat that much but on this day I did,

OK well that rounds up today’s session guys, lets reflect on what we’ve learned and I’ll see you on the next CD “how to make your business 1000% more profitable”

Pooky and the fish

My thoughts are this – throughout life you have to make tough choices, not necessarily whether to have chicken or turkey for dinner, but the kind of stuff where you can imagine the universe literally splitting in two and playing out 2 distinct outcomes, a real sliding doors moment. Which uni to go to, leaving your job, breaking up a relationship.. being indecisive at the best of times I think these moments are incredibly difficult, partly for trying to play out both possibilities of the decision and then wondering if it’s ever possible to backtrack. “Have I irreparably changed my life and am now unable to go back?”

Ok – and now for the substance. I think very few decisions in life are 100% final, even the most extreme example I can think of – (sex changes) can be, and are reversed. Need to get back together with the girl of your dreams? Employ the talents of Lionel and his greatest hits CD, or dress up as the man, arrive on the doorstep and sing the most beautiful song your vocal range will allow for. I’m sure in 99% of cases this would work *

Joking aside, I think when it comes to making tough choices it’s easy to see them as being a snap decision at one point in time, with a black and white outcome. What I’ve realised is that really they’re 1000 little events that led up to an eventual outcome, over a much longer period. Little insignificant things that eventually led you down a path to a conclusion – which has to be turned into some kind of yes/no in the form of making a decision, like looking back at the path and thinking “oh look where I’ve ended up”. When it comes to making that decision it’s tricky, you’re trying to squash a balloon into a box, remove it’s rounded edges and define it as something else, put a label on it. But for me I think – you wouldn’t have taken this path if it wasn’t for 1000 little left/right turns along the way.

I guess to summarise

• Very few big decisions can’t be reversed
• Big decisions are really just 1000s of tiny little decisions clumped together
• Change isn’t always a bad thing
• You can only try and make the best decision given the limited information (in hindsight) you have available to you at the time

I’m not 100% sure after re-reading that though whether to actually post this or not.

A few random images of my Business Development Manager (Mr Pooky) and the fish today. Note the fish in the centre having a bit of a freak out in the 2nd image! In reality they really don’t mind… Loving this Matrix & Futurebound – Womb

* the author makes no guarantees of relationship advice, nor whether this will actually work in theory. “3 times a lady” is a great song though

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