Choose With Awareness
Whether delivering a keynote address, facilitating a workshop, or coaching a leader, people often talk about what they have to lose if they pursue certain courses of action. Most often, the worries expressed are about the loss of a job, income, their sense of security or status. In such instances, I like to issue a gentle reminder that self-respect, confidence, courage, personal power and happiness can also be lost when one makes choices that deny deeper needs. Material survival is not the only important dimension of life.
As you weigh options and make decisions, think deeply and broadly about your options and what is truly most important to you. Develop a compete accounting of both sides of your ledger – what you’re likely to gain based on certain choices and what the gains cost you, in other words, what you’re likely to lose. Choices made with awareness and consideration of consequences, losses and gains, tend to be more satisfying long-term.
