Your ability to make a choice is the most powerful tool you possess. You can choose to change at any given moment– your situation, your relationships, your perspective, your life.
Our options may ebb and flow as we move through life, but we always have the power of choice. It’s important to choose because not making a choice is to allow others to choose for you.
We live in an era of unlimited options. From simple things, like what to eat or what to watch. To the big things like taking a job opportunity, closing a business, or forming a partnership. Learning how to be decisive is one of the most useful skills we can develop today.
Making hard decisions
Last year, I decided to quit the best job I ever had. It was not an easy decision. At the time, I felt this job was so attached to my identity, to my success, and held the keys to my abundant future. But I got an amazing job offer, which made me reconsider.
I thought this was simply a choice of:
(A) staying at my beloved job or
(B) accepting the new job offer
Instead, I was challenged:
“What do I really want?”
“Are these my only two options?”
This prompt (and push to reflect) came directly from Seth Godin’s Alt MBA program, which I was coincidentally enrolled in during this time. In it, I learned various ways to look at a situation from different perspectives, and how to be a more effective decision-maker.
With an open mind and new tools, I evaluated the choice to make for my career ahead. I reflected on what I wanted as an outcome, carefully assessed my options, and considered what would need to happen for these possibilities to become a reality.
The result was not what I expected.
With absolute clarity, I knew, it wasn’t the current job or the new job that was right for me. It was going on my own entirely. One year later, I’m so grateful that I did.
