You Only Make One Decision a Day
Start each day the right way, by asking yourself one question in the morning.
Image via Pixabay.com
Start each day the right way, by asking yourself one question in the morning.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. It can feel as though we are faced with hundreds of thousands of decisions every day. Some decisions have a quick and easy solution and are automatic, like reaching for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, while others take much more deliberation and care. There is no right way to make a decision. Pros and cons lists, decision trees, or going with their gut are a small sample of ways you can make decisions in your life. I’m not here to tell you how to go about making your decisions, but I am going to explain why you really only make one real decision each and every day.
This sounds like guru bullshit. I don’t disagree with you.
Our attitudes, biases, and history influence our reality. It doesn’t appear to me that there is a single version of events, a true reality that every person experiences. We build, shape, and reshape our life every time we reflect on it. Life isn’t about how we can live like others, but how to live every day with others in a positive way.
Coexisting with other people is quite possibly the most frustrating and rewarding part of life. Frustrating, because it feels incredibly complicated, and rewarding because, well, it’s inexplicable how things change once you have people you genuinely care about in your life. They make everything you do feel a little better. You suddenly have a goal that you didn’t know you wanted really to achieve.
The best way to coexist with your fellow humans comes down to making mutually beneficial decisions. And the key to making decisions is our attitude. How do we start our day in a way that increases our chances of making beneficial decisions? Well, all you really have to do is ask yourself one question in the morning. Am I going to have a good or a bad day today?
This sounds like guru bullshit. I don’t disagree with you. And there’s not a whole lot of evidence I can use to cajole you into believing what I say. The only thing I can do is ask you to give it a try for a couple weeks and see how the results treat you and to take a moment for a little self-reflection.
Ask yourself this, how many times have you had a day that goes something like this:
You wake up in a bad mood. You look at your clock and realize you are actually running 10 minutes late. You spill your coffee on your pants while you are rushing to the car. As you drive to the office, you realize you forgot your wallet and that’s when you catch the lights in your rearview mirror. You get to work and your employees are late on a project, so you chew one of them out, in a way that you’ll feel bad about later.
Now that same day with one little change:
You wake and decide that today is going to be a good day. You look at your clock and realize you are actually running 10 minutes late. You spill your coffee on your pants while you are rushing to the car. As you drive to the office, you realize you forgot your wallet and that’s when you catch the lights in your rearview mirror. You get to work and your employees are late on a project, so you remind them how important this project is and that, as a team, we need to come together and get it done.
All the same events happened in each scenario, but I promise you, when you make the conscious effort to have a good day, you can keep a level and emotional head on your shoulders when things go awry. A level head makes you more affable even when you have to be stern and more forgiving when sympathy is needed. Taking a “good day” attitude into these situations is what keeps you from the spiral of feeling alone and picked on by the big bad universe.
If you look back on your life, you will find days where it feels like the universe is against you. Days that no matter what you do, you cannot get ahead and cannot make a positive change. This happens to everyone. And when it’s happening to you, it really is isolating. Other than realizing the universe really doesn’t give a shit about any specific individual’s problems, injecting your life with a morning decision to have a good day can keep that isolating feeling at bay.
Once you pick your answer in the morning to this one question, the rest of your decisions will flow. You may still use your pro and con list, but since your attitude has already been decided, the decision has really already been made. Each day offers the chance of adding a little more positivity, no matter what situation you are in. Some days are harder than others, but you have a choice. And your attitude will make the rest of your decisions for you.
So you see, you really are only making one decision every day. Everything else that comes is a consequence of how you answer
Are you going to have a good or bad day today?