In the popular film ‘Three idiots’, the lead actor Rancho who is an excellent engineering student is seen telling one of his friends, “You are an idiot, you love photography and yet here you are marrying engineering” he further explained that it was the reason why his friend wasn’t performing well in his studies. His heart was obviously into taking pictures of wild animals but his parents had pushed him into studying something different because they liked the prestige that came with having an engineer for a son. For each one of us, choices are presented every moment for the small as well as the grand things in our lives.
As soon as you first open your eyes in the morning the choices are presented to you in their numbers. To wake up immediately or to laze around in your bed for a while, to head straight into the shower or to go for a jog or to give yourself a ‘much-needed break’. To declare the day slow and boring or to inject positive energy into it. The choices go on into the day, every moment is full of them. When to eat, what to eat and how to prepare it, these are all the alternatives you get as you go on with the day. To give thought to your looks or not to, to make an effort towards building good relationships by calling or visiting your folks. At the end of the day, you are the product of all these small options you took seriously or allowed yourself to lazily and unconsciously take.
Knowing, therefore, that for as long as you live you will always be faced with the need to make selections, what is it that you ought to consider so that you may become better at it?
1. Clarity about yourself
I cannot stress this enough, “Man, know thyself”. Your character, your strength, and weakness should guide the choices you make so get busy finding them out and trying and testing them. All your life you may have been told that you are bad at something when in fact that is your best talent only needing some polishing. Stereotypes may have saturated your head until you ceased to bother trying out certain things. Take time to test them out, try everything your time allows you to so that at the end of the day you know yourself more than anyone else does. You will work extra hard if as an easily distracted person you choose to work from home in the same way that one who values family time may want to consider a job that grounds and keeps them closer to home. Are you an excessively smart person who loves nothing more than order in your environment? You may need to consider having a smaller family or investing in an effective organizing team or system. Award yourself the happiness you deserve by studying yourself and making decisions based on what works for you.
2. Your ultimate intentions
In the same college accounting class, there may be a student who wants to become the best accountant in town and get hired by the best firm while there is another who wants to fully grasp the accounting systems so that he starts a large accounting firm himself. These two will not study the same thing during their free time. The former ought to develop the qualities necessary for job security which include hard work, consistency, and constant skill development while the latter needs to add leadership skills among other things. Once you discover your life’s purpose, it is easier to make the little choices you are faced with throughout the day. You have a compass pointing in the direction you want to go therefore anything that feeds into it, you make time for while cutting everything else out.
3. Your intentions for those who follow you
You want your children to try different kinds of sports and find out what they are good at? Take them to a school that celebrates sport and has organized schedules for them. As a leader of a team, decide if you want them to have maximum focus and then design their workspace for such. Do you want a happy team that doesn’t need to worry about what to have for lunch? Put in place a good café, dining room, or catering services for them. If the goal is to have loyal employees, you must make them feel loved and appreciated in special ways so you may need to find out what makes them tick. Know their birthdays and other special events in their lives and celebrate with them.
Before purchasing a car, the average person wants to know the qualities of the particular model they want so that they make an informed decision. The same applies to the process of buying a house or any other big investment. If you applied the same principle to whatever thing you needed to acquire in your life you would save yourself from making grave mistakes.
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