Every day in our lives we are faced with choices, some we make immediately, the easy ones, others we procrastinate on, but we will have to choose at some point or the choice will be made for us, and we probably will not like what has been chosen for us. Decision making is learned and far different than habits, such as putting on your shoes in the morning. Now at one point in your life putting the shoes on was choice which eventually turns into habit.
When I was about ten or eleven years old I can recall my mother saying to me one day when I asked her what clothes I should wear, her reply to me was, that that was my decision and I should go and make my own choice and she would be happy to give her opinion on my choices, she further went on to tell me that if she made these basic decisions for me that when I am thirty I will still be asking her, a good lesson from a great mother. The next time that I can recall having a decision making issue was when I was about 21 years old. My close friend who mentored me early on in some important lessons of life, Melvin James, when discussing with him my dilemma gave me another piece of advice that has stuck with me to this day; he simply said “stop sitting on the fence and jump, if you end up on the wrong side I am sure you will quickly jump over the fence to the side you should be on.” Well he was right and it’s still true today many years later. I have been jumping off of fences ever since, not always on the right side, but I soon figure that out.
So my question is why do we struggle with making the right decision? I recently came across an excellent answer in Charles Colson’s new book, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters . There is a conversation with a Dr. Dawkins as to why he had not made a decision on his faith and the question given was asked in the following manner. Should he have been a passenger on the “Titanic” and was offered two lifeboats, one certain to sink as opposed to one with a one in seven chance of staying afloat, he would have chose the latter, to choose the boat with no hope is clearly irrational.
In this analogy he is referring to God as the rational choice. So why do people refuse it? Mortimer Adler editor of the Great Book Series and an intellectual giant in his time, accepted the rational conclusion that Christianity was true, But when asked why he hadn’t converted, here said he wasn’t “prepared to give up all the vices and weaknesses of the flesh.”
As real estate professionals we are the same way, we don’t invest in ourselves by attending training and conferences as much as we should, mostly because we don’t want to use our resources and time to grow professionally, as all the other self interests and entertainment compete for the same dollars and spending on entertainment is far more pleasurable than spending five hundred dollars and sitting in a class room or conference to educate our selves. So we tell ourselves we know already know that stuff, a weakness of the flesh. Let us just hope our Doctor does not think as many of us do.
Life is full of choices let us just hope and pray when faced with choices we choose the right boat. Author John Maxwell has a quote “Life is filled with trade offs, you can trade up, but only if you have something to sacrifice.” What are you willing to sacrifice?
When I was about ten or eleven years old I can recall my mother saying to me one day when I asked her what clothes I should wear, her reply to me was, that that was my decision and I should go and make my own choice and she would be happy to give her opinion on my choices, she further went on to tell me that if she made these basic decisions for me that when I am thirty I will still be asking her, a good lesson from a great mother. The next time that I can recall having a decision making issue was when I was about 21 years old. My close friend who mentored me early on in some important lessons of life, Melvin James, when discussing with him my dilemma gave me another piece of advice that has stuck with me to this day; he simply said “stop sitting on the fence and jump, if you end up on the wrong side I am sure you will quickly jump over the fence to the side you should be on.” Well he was right and it’s still true today many years later. I have been jumping off of fences ever since, not always on the right side, but I soon figure that out.
So my question is why do we struggle with making the right decision? I recently came across an excellent answer in Charles Colson’s new book, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters . There is a conversation with a Dr. Dawkins as to why he had not made a decision on his faith and the question given was asked in the following manner. Should he have been a passenger on the “Titanic” and was offered two lifeboats, one certain to sink as opposed to one with a one in seven chance of staying afloat, he would have chose the latter, to choose the boat with no hope is clearly irrational.
In this analogy he is referring to God as the rational choice. So why do people refuse it? Mortimer Adler editor of the Great Book Series and an intellectual giant in his time, accepted the rational conclusion that Christianity was true, But when asked why he hadn’t converted, here said he wasn’t “prepared to give up all the vices and weaknesses of the flesh.”
As real estate professionals we are the same way, we don’t invest in ourselves by attending training and conferences as much as we should, mostly because we don’t want to use our resources and time to grow professionally, as all the other self interests and entertainment compete for the same dollars and spending on entertainment is far more pleasurable than spending five hundred dollars and sitting in a class room or conference to educate our selves. So we tell ourselves we know already know that stuff, a weakness of the flesh. Let us just hope our Doctor does not think as many of us do.
Life is full of choices let us just hope and pray when faced with choices we choose the right boat. Author John Maxwell has a quote “Life is filled with trade offs, you can trade up, but only if you have something to sacrifice.” What are you willing to sacrifice?
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