I like a sunrise. It’s a time of new beginnings, a glorious, colourful reminder that no matter how yesterday turned out, today is a new day with a chance to make a fresh start. Yesterday might have been frustrating, disappointing, or even painful. Today can be a re-start when we reassess and focus on what we really need to do to achieve the life that matters most to us.
As I enjoy the sunrise, I give myself a moment to pause and reflect. By accepting my emotions, frustrations, and disappointments about yesterday I can use that energy in a positive way for the day ahead. Yes there is a darkness before sunrise, and that’s the beauty of it for me. When the light emerges and the world becomes bright, there’s a moment of exhilaration when the sun comes over the horizon, and there’s a day ahead full of promise. It’s the same feeling when we get clear on our decisions – the world looks brighter, and we know what we need to do.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about decisions and how we make them. Life seems to be coming more and more complex with so many options and choices that have an impact on our path forwards. When there’s too much choice it’s easy to be indecisive, which leads to common experiences such as feeling out of control, feeling lost, and failing to achieve.
As a chartered accountant, business advisor, not for profit director, daughter, spouse, mother, and friend I’ve seen decision-making at its best as well as the heartbreak of inaction and regret. I’ve observed that while decision making is inherent to our human experience, we can struggle to make effective decisions, and to overcome indecision or inaction because we don’t have a way of dealing with decision making. Without a clear way forward, we don’t apply our scarce resources – time, money, opportunities, in the most effective way. We might also take on more risk than is sensible for our situation, or less than we can manage!
Here’s what I’ve learned.
First and most important - decision making is as unique as we are. While we can benefit from the people around us and our environment, ultimately as individuals we must make the call.
The risky part is that we must make choices that include future uncertainty because we won’t know how effective our decisions will be until after the event. The moment of making that decision is a moment of trust. Trust in yourself, your focus, and your process.
Secondly - the decision-making process makes a huge difference. This is because an objective framework is applied to what is a subjective, unique experience. The process for effective decision making is based on:
A simple approach or process that is easy to understand and use
Knowing clearly where you are, where you want to be, what’s important to you; and the actions you must take to get there
It all sounds easy but in practice it’s hard to do because most of us lack the tools, knowledge, and insights to make it work.
The process is our individual decision journey, helping us to make the best decisions to achieve what we want out of life, and it starts with remembering the sunrise.
Its powerful symbolism focuses our attention on new beginnings and refocuses our actions for a new day. Every day is a new beginning, and the opportunity to both take account of what has happened and refocus what we really want. If we think of our decision-making as ‘sunrise’ moments, we’ll create the ability to quickly reassess and adjust when things don’t go as fast as we’d like, or we feel we’re losing momentum or direction.
For effective decisions that keep you on the path to achieve what you want most out of life, and the freedom to make those decisions with autonomy and confidence – get up early and enjoy the sunrise! Each new day brings an exciting new beginning on your decision journey.
