Decisions, Decisions

This post is reprinted from an email I get every week from the folks at FranklinCovey.

You’ve been working intensely on a project for several hours and you feel your effectiveness dwindling. You have the thought that taking a break to read a little or eating an early lunch might regenerate you. But you have a deadline, and you’re not sure whether the break is really renewal or escape. How do you decide?

• Ask with intent. This is an essential act to become principle-centered. Ask your conscience, not out of curiosity, but out of commitment to act on the wisdom of the heart. “What’s the best use of my time right now?” “What is life asking of me?”
• Listen without excuse. When you hear the first whispering of conscience, you’ll either act in harmony with it, or immediately begin to rationalize making another choice. Choosing the first option will bring you inner peace.
• Act with courage. Some of the greatest acts of courage are in that instant between stimulus and response in our everyday decisions in life.

Effective decision-making - something to decide upon!