Choices and Decisions

​“You are only one decision away from a totally different life.” -Author Unknown
 
“You are the possessor of a great and wonderful power. This power, when properly applied, will bring confidence instead of timidity, calmness instead of confusion, poise instead of restlessness, and peace of mind in place of heartache. What is your greatest power? The power to choose.” -J. Martin Kohe (Jack Martin Kohe (1902 - 1960)): “Your Greatest Power” (1953)
 
“We are our choices.” -Jean-Paul Sartre (Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905 - 1980))
 
“Sir, what is the secret of your success?” a reporter asked a bank president. “Two words.” “And, sir, what are they?” “Right decisions.” “And how do you make right decisions?” “One word.” “And, sir, what is that?” “Experience.” “And how do you get experience?” “Two words.” “And, sir, what are they?” “Wrong decisions.”
 
“There are always two choices, two paths to take. One is easy . . . and its only reward is that it’s easy.” -Author Unknown
 
When faced with a decision, decide.
     When faced with a choice, choose.
Sitting on the fence will leave you too tense,
     Because you neither win nor lose!
-Barry Spilchuk
 
“We are living in a time when the best of things are on the Earth . . . and the worst of things. Are we taking advantage of the best of things . . . and staying away from the worst of things?” -Author Unknown
 
“You can never successfully determine beforehand which side of the bread to butter.” -Author Unknown
 
“Our lives are, in reality, the sum total of our seemingly unimportant decisions and of our capacity to live by those decisions.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))
 
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” -J. K. Rowling (Joanne ‘Jo’ Rowling (born 1965)): “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (1998); line spoken by fictional character Professor Dumbledore
 
“Daily decisions determine destiny.” -Author Unknown
 
“I must have a prodigious amount of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up!” -Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910)): “The Innocents Abroad” (1869)
 
“We are a product of the choices we make, not the circumstances that we face.” -Roger Crawford
 
“Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.” -Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894): as quoted in Tryon Edwards, editor: “A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern” (1891), page 68
 
“Doing isn’t difficult. Deciding is.” -Foster Hibbard
 
“The most important choice we make is what we choose to make important.” -Michael Neill
 
“Life is the sum of all your choices.” -Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
 
“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt (Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt (1858 - 1919))
 
“We make our choices, then our choices make us. Choose carefully.” -Author Unknown
 
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” -Denis Waitley (born 1933)
 
“Your life becomes the thing you have decided it shall be.” -Raymond Charles Barker
 
Does it scare you when someone says to you, “It’s your decision.”?
 
“Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to require the most from you.” -Caroline Myss (born 1952)
 
“Make your judgement trustworthy by trusting it. You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body - by judicious, daily exercise. To be known as a man of sound judgement will be much in your favor.” -Grantland Rice (Henry Grantland ‘Grantland’ Rice (1880 - 1954))
 
“When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.” -William James (1842 - 1910)
 
“Don’t base your decisions on the advice of people who don’t have to deal with the result.” -Author Unknown
 
Overheard: It is terrible to be indecisive. I feel like a centipede that has just been told to put its best foot forward.
 
Now let us consider the pros and cons of making a Pros and Cons Chart . . .

​One way to weigh your difficult decisions is to make a decision chart, in which you list the good points under the word ‘Pros’ meaning ‘In Favor Of’ and bad points under the word ‘Cons’ meaning ‘Against.’
 
Matthew: Yippee, I get to make a decision! Yahoo! I finally get to decide something!
Martha: Yes . . . so would you like liver and onions or cauliflower and tripe for dinner?
 
“There is but bad choice, where the whole stock is bad.” -Author Unknown
 
“It is better to make a wrong decision than build up a habit of indecision. If you’re wallowing in indecision, you certainty can’t act - and action is the basis of success.” -Marie Beynon Ray (1886 - 1969)
 
“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” -Pythagoras (about 570 B.C.E. - about 495 B.C.E.)
 
“Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)
 
“Dwelling on past bad decisions you’ve made only allows those decisions to keep defining you. Forgive yourself and move on.” -Mandy Hale (born 1978)
 
“Sometimes walking away is the best decision.” -Kimberley Blaine
 
Decidophobia is a fear of making decisions. Perhaps one approach to overcoming the fear would be to start out with making small or minor decisions. Decide which decisions are small.
 
“It is choice and not chance which determines our destiny.” -Author Unknown
 
“The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.” -Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821 - 1881)
 
“It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide what to do.” -Elbert Hubbard (Elbert Green Hubbard (1856 - 1915))
 
Overheard: I used to think I was indecisive, but now I am not even sure about that.
 
“Can you not see that to decide to do nothing is the most wretched of all decisions?” -Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
 
“Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice.” -Author Unknown
 
“When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose.” -Jarod Kintz (born 1982): “This Book Title is Invisible”
 
“It is not so much the major events as the small day-to-day decisions that map the course of our living.” -Gordon B. Hinckley (Gordon Bitner Hinckley (1910 - 2008))
 
“Your life is a result of the choices you make . . . If you do not like your life, it is time to start making better choices.” -Author Unknown
 
“My basic principle is that you don’t make decisions because they are easy; you don’t make them because they are cheap; you don’t make them because they’re popular; you make them because they’re right.” -Theodore Hesburgh (Theodore Martin Hesburgh (born 1917))
 
“Be decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.” -Author Unknown
 
“There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.” -William James (1842 - 1910): “The Principles of Psychology” (1890), Chapter 4
 
“Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.” -Robert F. Bennett
 
“It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are.” -Roy E. Disney (Roy Edward Disney (1930 - 2009))
 
“Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Five, because there’s a difference between deciding and doing.” -Mark L. Feldman & Michael F. Spratt: “Five Frogs on a Log” (1999)
 
“We cannot lead a choiceless life. Every day, every moment, every second, there is a choice.” -Ernest Holmes (Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887 - 1960))
 
“Decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women.” -Brian Tracy (born 1944)
 
“Scan. Select. Move on.” -Author Unknown

What should you do when you come to a fork in a road, and have to decide which of the two roads to take? A wise person once said, “When you come to a giant fork in a road, hey, take it, because further ahead, there might be a giant slice of blueberry pie.” Wait . . . that doesn’t make any sense . . .

“There’s an alternative. There’s always a third way, and it’s not a combination of the other two ways - it’s a different way.” -David Carradine (born John Arthur Carradine (1936 - 2009))

“You make what seems a simple choice: choose a spouse or a job or a neighborhood - and what you have chosen is not a spouse or a job or a neighborhood but a life.” -Jessamyn West

“Weigh well what you can only once decide.” -Author Unknown

“You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.” -Steven D. Woodhull (born 1976)

“Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.” -Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 - 1970)): “The Conquest of Happiness” (1930)

“Indecisiveness is the key to flexibility.” -Author Unknown

“Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment.” -Rita Mae Brown (born 1944)

“Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy.” -Paulo Coelho (born 1947)

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” -Stephen Covey (Stephen Richards Covey (1932 - 2012))

“Make choices today you can live with tomorrow.” -Author Unknown

“I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.” -Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926 - 2004)

“We almost always have choices, and the better the choice, the more we will be in control of our lives.” -William Glasser (1925 - 2013)

“Some decisions in life are difficult, like when you are asked if you will trade your truck-load of bananas for a car-load of monkeys.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” -Keri Russell

“Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.” -John Wooden (1910 - 2010)

This is MFOL! . . . perhaps the easiest decision you will make today . . . or maybe just the best . . . you get to decide . . .