Decision Time by Laurence Alison & Neil Shortland

Author:Laurence Alison & Neil Shortland [Alison, Laurence & Shortland, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473589155
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2021-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

Make time work for you

Decisions: they’re all about what you end up doing, right? Wrong. Decisions are just as much about when you do something as they are about what you actually do. That’s because making a sound decision involves a complicated interplay of many different aspects of being human, and to make the best of all these, your first task is to work out what time frame you have available.

Act too quickly and you’ll fail to use experiences that could be helpful, or you’ll neglect the opportunity to tap into the values that are important to you and should, as we’ve already seen, guide you to the course of action that’s right for you. Act too slowly and eventually you’ll have negated your opportunity to make a decision at all, because events – rather than your intentions – will shape the course of what happens next. Plus, you’ll be missing out on the positives of the choice you’re sitting on and leaving yourself in an unfulfilled limbo. Obama could have delayed, and bin Laden could have moved, and we could have spent the next ten years searching for the world’s most-wanted terrorist.

In a nutshell, the issue around time comes down to this: whatever decision you’re facing, if you have time on your side to help you decide, then use it. Let’s say you’re weighing up whether you want to leave your partner of 20 years or stay with them. On one view of this, time is on your side. Nothing will happen until you make your choice, and it’s a life-changing one. Could you be happier alone, or with someone else, than you are with your partner? Might things in your relationship improve and, if so, what do you need to do to ensure they do? If you decide to leave, who else will be impacted by your choice – certainly your children, if you have them – and how seriously impacted might they be? What will your financial position be if you go on to get divorced?

These are just a few of the huge issues you’d need to consider before making a choice and, as with all difficult decisions, there are many unknowns in the mix. You have a whole raft of information to gather: some of it is emotional, some of it is connected to your family and your wider relationships, and some of it is about your financial situation. Some of the information is clear-cut; much of it is uncertain.

It’s important to say, though, that we’re not advocating that you should only make a decision when you’re forced to. Rather, this is about being clear on the amount of time you have available, and whether using it is going to be to your advantage. So, the question is: do I have time to gather information? And if yes, will gathering information help me make a decision? If the answer to either of these questions is no, you need to speed up your decision-making.

In addition to all

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