Decision Making

Recently a group of us were asked by a newsletter editor, to provide a brief recommendation to the newsletter readers on what they could do to help them advance their careers.  As always, I try to provide thought provoking information for the purpose of allowing all to see that they have the capabilities within them to achieve what they want to achieve.  Evoking mental stimulation is healthy for an individual and will always motivate them to act.  That fits perfectly into what this blog encourages.  Allowing your mind to think the deep thoughts, the "what ifs".  The playing out of downstream events in your mind to help you, in a sense, see into the future and make good decisions based on what you see.  The topic of this posting is to take one point from the advice in the newsletter mentioned above and expand that thought even further.  A lot further.  Lets create some thoughts about decision making and the need for this critical skill to be more prevalent in the world. 

As is the case with any advice, sermon or presentation, the message should be such that a large group of people or in some cases a specific group of people, can identify with what is being said.  The advice that I had listed was done so with the thought that a large group of people could read it, relate to it and hopefully be motivated to take action by it.  The deeper thought in the message however, was directed at a more specific group of people.  A group of people that are often labeled by society as the lower class.  Those who take whatever job they can get with their current and static level of education, attitudes and beliefs about life, and making a living with that job.  Those who only know to do what they are told to do and only do it when they are told to do it and don't know how to notice that it needs doing without someone telling them to do it.  These individuals would never go above and beyond so as to stretch the limits of their physical and mental capacities because they do not know how.  They have grown up both personally and professionally with bad or lacking values and bad influences all around them.  They make bad decisions, if they make one at all, and have the attitude and approach to life that you would find in young teenagers.  A large number of the laws that are made in the world come about due to the fact that a large demographic of people are unable to make good decisions.  When a good decision cannot be made by a group of people, government has to intervene and make those decisions for them. 

Decision Making is one of the most critical skills needed in life and yet is one of the least focused on "core curriculum" items in the educational systems.  The old adages of reading, writing and arithmetic should also include decision making.  If good decision making was more prevalent in humanity, especially as young people are growing up, there would be so many negative aspects of society that would simply fix themselves.  Unplanned pregnancies, drunk driving, unnecessary litigation, jail / prison overcrowding and the list could go on and on.  Imagine all of the tax dollars that are spent in support of these types of problems.  The financial savings would be one of many sources fueling the ROI for having a formal program and core requirement in our schools to educate children on good decision making.

A program such as what is being suggested would lead to a chain reaction but would require a few generations to pass allowing for the chain of ignorance to be broken.  Having children growing up and confidently deciding not to take certain paths in life would be a watershed accomplishment over time.  There would be some work involved in setting up a 10 or 12 year educational program but once that is done and the program started, all other benefits would happen naturally over time, through attrition, just as so many natural things in life occur.