People make decisions daily. What to wear, where to eat, which task to start first, what to say, and how to respond, just to name a few. Regardless of where you lay your head at night, the first decision of the day is whether to get out of bed. Why do you decide to get out of bed? What pushes you to do so?
As morning arrives and you begin to stir, you lay there with your eyes open, or with your eyes closed. You lay there, partially awake, and then it happens. What happens you ask? Thoughts and questions happen. Thoughts and questions begin bouncing around in your head and these thoughts and questions, typically fall into two categories: thoughts about self (What do I need to do today?) and thoughts about others (What do I need to do for others today?). There are times these categories can overlap each other. As you begin to formulate answers to these questions, remember, nothing will happen until you get out of bed and act. So, for the sake of argument, responsibilities to ourselves and others is what makes us get out of bed.
Interestingly enough, another thought that happens as we lay there, is prioritization. As we start putting answers to our questions, we begin to prioritize those answers by importance. Now, you may say that is not fair. Everything I do for myself or for others is important regardless of the order in which I do them. That is a great sentiment, but let’s face it, there is not enough time in the day to do everything. Thus, we do things in a manner of importance to us. We all do it. I am no exception. What decisions have you made up to this point and how are those decision trending? Are they trending towards you or towards others?
Take time throughout the day to assess the decisions you have made. Look at the impact your decisions have had on you and on those around you. This is the time you can reset. If all of your decisions have primarily focused on you, this is your opportunity to change your focus to others. If all of your decisions have primarily focused on others, this is your opportunity to change the focus to yourself. You may even realize decisions have become so routine during your day; you do not even think about them nor their impact. Most importantly, if your decisions have impacted yourself or others negatively, this is your opportunity to work towards amending your behavior, so when that decision presents itself again you will consider the outcome prior to proceeding.
The number of decisions we make each day is countless. While it may be naive to think people will take time out of their day to assess their decisions, it may not be. This is something I have been trying to work on, so I thought why not suggest it to others.