Making the Right Decision


Making big decisions are damn difficult: am I being a good parent or doing it right? Did I say the right thing to her? Am I mortgaging my future for instant gratification?

Dagnabbit. What’s a person to do?

On a personal note, I’ve been working on a big creative project, a book, for more than a year. As with any creative project I’ve put my heart, soul, and lots of emotion into the work.
Only recently have I been kicking the tires on selling the project to a publisher—and I’ve been getting nowhere fast but have been learning a great deal. I decided to get a little professional critique from a consultant to see if there’s another direction I should be going in with the art and the sales pitch. I paid a pretty penny and got good advice.
But because I put so much emotional labor into the piece, I nearly let myself get talked into letting this consultant take on additional work slicing and dicing up the book—for quadruple the original consulting fee.
It was tempting. The promise that my piece could be a bestseller if x, y, and z were done to my book. But I sought council, which took out the emotion, and I ended up deciding not to move further. I could do a bang up job doing the edits myself and test the piece out with beta readers… and I could use the money I saved to go on vacation (woot!)

Did I make the right decision? Only time will tell… but it got me thinking, reading about, and studying the art, yes art, of decision making.
  • Emotional decision: Usually not the best kind of decision to make. Take a second. Resist as best you can the decision to act on impulse. Breathe. Seek council with a person you respect and trust.
  • Rational decision: This is usually one where you’ve done some research, sought council, and thought things out pragmatically. Always a good idea for marriage, business partnerships, and a used car dealership. Buyer beware: taking time to make a rational decision can sometimes lead to paralysis. That means you #FOMOers
  • Quick decision: These are for choosing between brands of horseradish or whether or not to save $10 and go with the smaller screen television. Pick something and move on with your life. Spend less time on decision-making and more time on the things that mean something to you—a relationship, a vacation, or hand-knitting your famous holiday sweater collection.
  • Middle of the road decision (sometimes indecision): This can have grave consequences if done poorly and could have tremendous upside if done well. Making a wishy-washy decision could lead to a perilous tumble, like the hesitant trapeze artist. Stick with something and plow ahead full force. On the other hand, making a decision to be neutral between two arguing friends or rivals could prove beneficial. You waste no time tiring yourself out with arguments or war, the odds are more favorable that you won’t be on the losing side (hello Ottoman Empire in WWI), and you spend more time on the things that matter to you.
  • Smart decision: You only get to call a decision “smart” in hindsight. Every decision can be a smart one if you aim to learn something from each rather than only focusing on the outcome.
Whatever the decision you make—you have to make one that you can live with when you put your head down to sleep at night.

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