Choices

I often wonder how other people make decisions. What is the process your noodle runs you through to help you decide A or B, this or that? For many people I feel it is a process of pro's and con's; morality, reality, logic, emotion, etc all weigh in and create an equation such as

Action X = Outcome Y + Consequence Z

How do you feel about that? Personally I can't help but wonder why we do it this way. I feel like we focus more on the outcome and the consequence than on the action itself. Whatever happened to doing what you felt you were supposed to do, just because? Is it an American thing, where we don't want to eat the responsibilities of our actions that cause us to focus on the consequences? I talk to friends about what they want to do with their lives or relationships or even insignificant things and what I tend to hear is "well I want to do this, but I think that will happen if I do." Why does that matter?

Here's a different look at it. What if we were to do what we felt was the right thing to do, each and every time. And, instead of even thinking about the outcome and/or consequences, we just went with it. Have you ever done that? To me it seems like a much simpler equation:

Action X = Right Choice

Now, the question probably ensues, "but how do I know if its the right choice if I don't think about the consequences or at least think I know how it will turn out?" To this I would answer, "you're thinking about the question incorrectly." Right choice doesn't mean that it will be the most convenient to you, or have a favorable outcome. When we look at the outcome and consequences, all we are usually doing is making sure we can live with the inconveniences our action will cause. So, lets remove those elements, as the equation above shows us.

What happens? It could happen that you get better and better at knowing what the right choice is. Can you really tell me that you DON'T want that in your life? Also, it may just make us a little more accountable for our actions, teach us how to take full responsibility. Again, you don't want this? Lastly, and here's the real winner for me: If I'm always doing what I feel is the right thing, will I ever feel guilty about my actions? Will my consience war with me? Could it just so happen that by doing the right thing, the responsibility we do have to take grows easier and easier and, may in fact, diminish over time?

I guess you now have an idea about how I try to make decisions. It's not perfect, of course we're going to make the wrong choice along the way. But you do get better and better at it, and the peace it affords your brainpan and heart is well worth it.

"The best solution to the problem"

I feel like we have lost the ability, or at least the desire, to ask ourselves "is this the best solution to the problem?" Even if we do ask the question, we often integrate current solutions into our answer, typically manifesting an improved answer, but not the best.

I'm not going to go into why or how we've arrived here, though I will have to think on those subjects, but allow me to illustrate some examples:

Money is the most renewable resource in the world. Time is the least. 99% of people work in a setup where they trade their least renewable resource for their most renewable one. In ancient bartering days, these people would be getting royally ripped off...thats like trading water for sand in the middle of the Sahara. How then, can I justify ever working an hourly job again? What is the solution?

If the combustion engine had never been invented, what would our solution be to the transportation issues we face? We all know we are using up exhaustible resources with our current solution, but all we are doing is improving what already exists; thatis switching to hybrid fuels, electric cars, etc. But they are still automobiles. What other solutions exist to get a person rapidly from A to B en masse?

What about housing? We use our homes to provide shelter from the elements, storage, a place to put a bed, park our cars, store and prepare our food, entertain, bathe ourselves, etc. If you made a list of all the functions a house performs, could you construct a better solution to the problem?

I will quote a friend, albeit abstractly, and paraphrase in this way:

"Am I willing to give up everything that I know in order to discover that which I don't?"