I was sitting in my car thinking about a decision I had to make. I was leaning in one direction but was not fully settled on whether it was the right thing to do.
I thought about the goals with this multi-faceted situation and knew that an immediate one would certainly be met by doing what I was thinking of doing. But then I thought, what’s the ultimate goal here? Once I got clear on that, I knew I had to shift gears.
I jotted these questions to help me think it through. I hope they’re helpful for you, too.
-What’s the ultimate goal?
-What’s the right thing to do?
-What makes it the right thing to do?
-Does it fit with our values?
-Who will it impact and what would the impact be?
-What other impacts have I not considered?
-What else is possible?
-Repeat to flush out other possibilities
Answering these questions helped me work through a thorny situation and strengthened my belief that I’d made the right decision.
What do you do when you have to make a difficult decision? Would you add anything to this list?
