Information Changes Situations

Image Courtesy of Lerato Mogorosi

I have been trying to steer my thoughts away from the whole “new year” vibe, but I’m struggling. I think it’s partly due to the fact that I’m a 90’s kid, 1990 to be precise, and for us, the turn of the calendar decade always coincides with the turn of personal decades. So not only am I stepping into a new decade on the calendar – the 20’s, I’m also stepping into a new decade in my life – the 30’s; affectionately known as the dirty thirties.

Don’t worry I’m not gonna talk about goals today (even though I want to follow up and find out if your thought-process with regards to setting goals has changed in any way since we last spoke).

Lately (even prior to my previous blog), I have been thinking a lot about decisions. And for the past two months I have been interacting with young people at the turning points of their lives, you know those moments where everyone is asking you “what’s next?” And I was amazed by the number of people who were making what I’d deem “uninformed decisions”.

Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting that the people were making wrong decisions (or right decisions for that matter). I am simply saying they did not gather enough information. In most cases, they had a thought, looked for something/someone to confirm the thought and then made a decision based on that.

I want to explore the idea of informed decisions a bit by asking this question:

When last did you give you the opportunity to make an informed decision about you and something you wanted to do?

A lot of us are considerate people, and have on many occasions afforded people the opportunity to make informed decisions. We provide them with as much information (and incentives) as we can and we hope that they process the information and make a decision (we like). But many of us have never afforded ourselves the same opportunity. And in most cases, it’s not even a matter of collecting information – it’s simply a matter of processing the information that is already there.

A friend of mine likes saying that information changes situations, and I keep coming across situations where I think to myself just a bit of information and this situation would be completely different (and in some cases, avoided).

One of the questions I ask myself is why? And the answer I keep getting to is simply this: we are in a hurry. We feel like everything is moving so fast and we have to move just as fast to keep up. And if we don’t move fast, FOMO kicks in. Here is a thought: you cannot miss out on your life! And honestly speaking, in our rush to not miss out, we actually end up missing out on a lot. Some of us are making decisions that will impact our lives for the next 10 years, or at least the next 12 months, take your time mate, YOLO! You only live once but once is enough if you do it right.

Here is a subtle reminder: whether things work out or not, you are still responsible for the decisions you make. So rather go to bed knowing that with all the information available (I’m tempted to embed a search engine link here) to you, you made the best decision possible.

John C. Maxwell once wrote – “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” And with that in mind, I’d like to suggest that we slow down and afford ourselves the opportunity to make informed decisions. Take some time to collect information and process it before you make a decision. At the very least, you’d have made an informed decision. And at the very best, the time taken to make the decision will allow you to navigate the consequences of that decision much easier (and maybe catch up with those you think are ‘ahead’ of you).

And maybe (and this is just wishful thinking), just maybe, we will get to a point where we allow others the opportunity to make informed decisions about us.