Today I’d like you to think about how you make decisions in your personal life and in your professional life. Perhaps you actually “need” something in order to do your job such as a pen to write with, a computer at your desk, an IT person who can help you with a problem, knowing information that will help you do a direct deposit of your pay check for instance. Then there are the decisions based on your “wants” such as longer breaks to take a walk, a vending machine in the break room, a prepaid toll card for a bridge or road you must travel to get to work each day, a drive through coffee establishment so you can breeze through on your way to work, for instance. These are two distinctions in our decision making: our wants, and our needs.
Here are some givens and questions you may have pondered and or experienced recently:
* Our world demands we use technology,
* Our world moves at a very very fast pace,
* We are required to make decisions at a nano-second pace,
* The perspective we are faced with daily is the “Worldly Perspective”, vs a perspective which is not global, national, religious, environmentally correct, your political views etc.
* Information with just enough truth to make the information appear real, plausible and emotionally charged enough to get you to “Re-Act”,
* I hear just enough truth to get me to make a snap decision,
* Remember that a little arsenic will kill you,
* Discernment is a principle,
* Discernment must be practiced 24-7-365 in every area of your life,
* Discernment must be ingrained in your thinking to guide your decision making,
* How is your hearing?
* How is your ability to discern what is good for you vs what is easy to do?
* How grounded are you?
All of the points and questions above are meant to ruffle your feathers. If you feel ruffled then may I be so bold as to say that you are living a life which is fraught with indecision, incongruence, and you don’t much like the decisions you make because you are stuck in the spot of lacking options so you make the decision you have to make.
When you, I, a family member, a friend, peer or any other person forgets or neglects to remember any one of these items above, we begin to stray. It is like being a block or two from your destination and your GPS says you have arrived at your destination and you don’t know if you are a block north, a block east, a block west or a block south of where you need to be. One small poor decision here today, another tomorrow, one at work, a poor one as you left the house this morning, another on Friday night, and still another at the mall on Sunday. Before you know it, you’ve got a string of poor decisions and no discernment and a pile of consequences which you did not plan on having.
A discerning mind is not something that you wake up with one morning. A discerning mind is achieved one decision at a time. Each of those decisions needs “due” attention. What does that mean? It simply means you need to stop and think before you act, open your mouth, hit send, put the keys in the ignition, write a check, swipe your credit card, and so on. Today, we “re-act” almost exclusively. Let me give you a great example here. If I ask you what day of the year is the biggest income day for retailers in the US what would you say? Well, that all depends now doesn’t it. In 2012 things changed. Stores were open on Thanksgiving night. Stores were open on “black Friday”, open on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and then there is the all important “Cyber-Monday” with shopping hitting a fever pitch between 12 and 2 pm. If you were one on those millions out there or online, did you go into your own shopping frenzy with a “discerning” mindset? Are you spoils still in the trunk of your car or hidden from view from someone in your family? By that next Wednesday, Friday, end of the month when your statement comes, are you going to not open it and toss it into the bill drawer and not look at it?
Congratulations…..you’re normal…..I will tell you this behavior is not responsible, discerning or conducive to a lifetime of great decision making, congruence nor a peaceful night’s sleep….but, you are normal…..