I offer this perspective when it comes time to make life’s tough decision. There is a thin line that separates the “what we are” and “who we are” and as of late, I have been able to realize that distinction clearly. Life is full of very tough decisions and we have to be even tougher at times to make them. Believe it or not, that is the easy part because choices should be based on our “intent” but “intent” hardly ever dictates “outcome”. Therefore, whenever an initial decision is made we then begin living in the “impact” and so life then is an experience of “impact vs. intent”. People often times judge decisions by “good or bad” based on their outcome. I, on the other hand am very careful about using this method of judgment. I tend to base decisions “good or bad” on the quality of time and effort used in making life’s choices because no one knows what the outcome of our choices will be beforehand. For example, if I have a choice of three doors and I choose what is behind door number one then it does not make me any wiser if what is behind door number one happens to be a million dollars as I would be if it were a bag of rocks. So, then the outcome is not the issue here but rather the quality of effort in the choice and the confidence in the choice made. See, what is behind the doors is absolute or fixed and has nothing to do with the chooser…the outcome is only relevant if that is the door that I choose. So if I put quality effort into my choices based on truth and facts then I must be confident in the decisions made and therefore be willing to accept their outcome. The “good or bad” is simply the nature of the beast and should not be attributed in large part to the decision maker unless there is a lack of quality or effort in the decision made. I say this because so many of us walk around with guilt because of the outcome of a situation when our intent going into the decision was pure.
You see, if I am a quarterback and we huddle to call a play… I call the play with the full intentions of that play being successful, which means between the coaches and I, we must struggle to anticipate what the defense will do…it is a game of strategy…and no matter how prepared we are as a team, if our calculations are incorrect then the play will be a disaster but that does not mean that the choice of play was bad. I offer that it is sometimes the fact that the defense is equally if not better prepared for the play than we are. See, the defense is also anticipating our calls also and prepared to react to whatever we decide to call. And even when we approach the line scrimmage at times we are still uncertain about the play called because of the potential of what we face and must resort to the audible…but even then there are no guarantees that the audible will work because the defensive set could be a bluff. Now, if you are getting impatient with the point then you will miss the issue here… You see, someone realized that the game of strategies and uncertainties can be so intense that they had to instill a play clock that governs the amount of time that you have to decide before action must be taken. Someone had to establish that you can not live life in the strategy because winners or losses are not determined in the strategy but rather in the action. You must be willing to be unsuccessful in order to succeed. Whatever you do in this life, never get bogged down in the strategy because strategy thinks something but does nothing! Call your play and use the lessons learned to call your next play. Just make sure that your preparation is good and live with the outcome that you can not control. That is life!
Posted By: Eric Gross
Wednesday, October 1st 2008 at 10:13AM
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