Decisions, decisions, decisions. Some are life-altering, some are inconsequential and most are somewhere in between. How many decisions have you made today?

When to get up? How many times to hit the snooze button? What clothes to wear? Whether to get dressed at all? Sometimes we don’t even realize the decisions we’ve made.  Sometimes we feel out of control of our lives, but all we need to do is take back some of these decisions we haven’t been actively making.

 

What are some decisions you need to quit making while on auto-pilot?

There are 5 steps to making a decision:

• Presented with a choice

• Make the decision

• Evaluate

• The aftermath

• Move on

Some decisions are quick and you don’t even realize you are moving through the steps.

1. Alarm goes off- you have a choice to make.
2. Do you turn it off and get up or hit snooze?
3. Evaluate – did you make the right choice? Or do you have regrets?
4. The aftermath – Your day is off to a good start at the time you’ve planned OR you hit snooze too many times and now you’re 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour behind?
5. Move on – are you wallowing in the mess you’ve made or are you making the best of it and doing the next right thing?

Some decisions are much more complicated and each step will take some time. Hours, days, weeks…

What job to take? Will you work? Where to live? How many kids to have?

Faced with a choice

There are daily choices we have to make. There are bigger life-altering decisions we have to make. Sometimes it’s clear we have a choice to make and sometimes we have been on auto-pilot for so long we don’t realize there are choices we can make.

If you’ve been on auto-pilot or in “survival mode” for so long you are oblivious to the choices you’re not making, this is your nudge to take a look at the things you can take control of. You may be surprised at how actively making a few decisions gives you new energy for life.

Make a choice

I was just told that George Washington has made more decisions since being on the coin than when he was alive (coin flip). Some decisions can be made with a coin flip, even if it’s just showing you which choice you really want. Some choices are a little more challenging.

If you assign an option to heads and an option to tails, then flip the coin you’ve made a choice. Now you probably don’t want to make major life decisions this way. However, sometimes the coinflip can help you realize which option you actually want.

If you land on heads but realize you really wanted tails, well then you’ve still made a decision. You now know which one you actually want. I learned this trick from Valerie Young.

For more in-depth, large decisions other methods may be necessary. Our pros and cons are shaped by our world view and moral standards, as Christians, this means we should be relying on the Bible and prayer. Does the Bible tell us which job to take? Or which house to buy? No, but it can help us set the priorities that help us determine which job or house will fit our lives the best.

Evaluate

Now that the decision has been made, was it the right one? They say hindsight is 20/20. How will you decide if you made the right decision? Do you go back to your pros and cons list?

The Aftermath

If you made a good decision, this is the easy part. CELEBRATE!

Unfortunately, if your decision was not right this is when it starts to get tough. I would encourage you to take a breath. Say a prayer.

Who else was affected?

Are you the only one affected by this decision? Unfortunately, you generally aren’t, so identify those other people.

Make amends

It is so important to acknowledge how people have been affected by our choices and then apologize or otherwise make it right.

Assess

How did things go wrong? What do you need to do to make it right?

Move on

There is always another decision to make, so we have to move on. Don’t let the last decision determine the next. Make sure you are doing the next right thing.

You are not allowed to wallow in the misery which was created by the last decision 🙂 I said so LOL

I always use the analogy of the potty training toddler who decides to poop their pants, remembers “oh yeah I’m not in diapers anymore.” and then hides so they aren’t found out. They’ve already made the mess, but instead of going to mom or dad for help they just sit in it. What does that do? It makes the mess bigger and possibly more painful. Don’t be a poopy pants toddler. Acknowledge what you’ve done, clean up the mess (get help if you need it), and be more conscious of your future decisions.

That’s what making good choices comes down to. You have to be conscious of the choices you’re making. Each choice you make has to be held to a standard. As a Christian, my standard is the Bible. However, some decisions are beyond what is actually in the Bible, but the standards for life are there.

I have recently made some life changes (and continue to take steps to make more) because I realized I am not the mom or wife I planned on being. Some things by Biblical standards and some just my own standards. We are all flawed humans on a journey. Make sure to offer grace and mercy to all of the others on this journey with you.