The ART of Achievement and Fulfillment

Chapter One

Be a Good Decision Maker

At any moment, the decision you make can change

the course of your life forever.

- ANTHONY ROBBINS

Every human being has the innate ability to make a choice. Choices are the decisions we make every day about the things we want to be, have, or do. They can be good or bad, and to a large extent determine our actions and successes. Decision is important to life and it is practically impossible for anybody or organization to survive a day without making one form of decision or another. Our choices range from the simple—what to eat or drink, the type of dress to wear—to the more complex, such as what sort of work to do.

Decision-making is self-fulfilling and can result in either the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the decision maker. A good decision resolves an issue, but a bad decision leads to making more decisions to correct the error in the earlier decision. Whenever you make a decision and follow through with action, you will enjoy a feeling of confidence and responsibility. You feel in control and satisfied with the choice you have made. These feelings help to stimulate your passion to do more and achieve more. Many people fail in their careers, businesses and relationships because of their inability to make quality decisions. Some have suffered many negative consequences arising from wrong decisions, while others have recorded new levels of success as a result of making good and timely decisions.

Decision-making is a way of life. It affects human existence and is important in determining how successful you can become. Good decisions shape our lives; they bring happiness, fulfillment and a sense of endorsement of our self-esteem. Sometimes, people wonder why they are not making significant progress in their lives. They cite examples of other people, perhaps their friends, colleagues and relatives that are making more progress than they, yet they shy away from making decisions about moving their own lives forward. They are unaware of the principle that our individual performances and personal achievements depend on the quality of decisions we make about ourselves. This is because it is our responsibilities to make decisions on how to lead our lives successfully and prosper in the things we are committed to do.

Your ability to solve your own problems and the problems of those around you depends very much on your determination to make quality decisions and follow them through. This is why most employers prefer to work with employees with great decision-making capabilities. It increases productivity and leads to the promotion of such employees.

When I was younger, I thought I needed to attain a certain age and position before I could make a decision. As I began to grow up, I discovered that decision-making is a part of everyday life, regardless of age or class. In the early years of my childhood, my parents made most of the decisions for me. They decided on the appropriate time for me to start school and what friends to play with. Being poor, my parents chose the college I attended, selecting a vocational school with an affordable tuition rather than a secondary school. Their intention was for me to study ‘typing and shorthand’; I would guess that they were molding me towards secretarial work. A few years prior to the completion of my vocational studies, my parents made another decision and enrolled me in a Christian preparatory class, after which I was baptized. That was the pattern of my life until I matured and became responsible.

Most of my parent’s decisions made a positive impact on my life. I love my parents and have never questioned their judgment save once, when I wanted to get married. Guess what; as usual, my father wanted to choose a wife for me. As much as I loved and respected my parents, I disagreed with them on this and it took much communication, explanation, and assertiveness for my father to concede that it was up to me to make the decision about who I should marry. Being my Hero, although not educated, my father is endowed with natural wisdom, foresight and the ability to communicate and lead very effectively. As I write this book, my father is about 90 years old, still strong and walking about without any form of support.

I am grateful to say that my father helped to mold my life by the correct choices he made on my behalf at my early years. But it frightens me now to think of what my life would have become if those decisions were made wrongly. This experience taught me two lessons:

Lesson One: Decisions can be imposed on us without our consent.

Lesson Two: If you don’t make a decision to lead your life in a particular way, someone else will do so on your behalf.

Many people struggle because they follow other people’s decisions. They do not have a goal for their lives and are not executing any action plan towards achieving the things they desire. They thoughtlessly put their lives at risk by placing themselves in the hands of others. This in itself is a bad decision.

Quality decisions are critical to the well-being of both individuals and organizations. They go a long way in determining the survival of those individuals or organizations in times of competition. It is a paradigm that shifts the course of life and destiny. A person’s ability to decide on one thing will usually lead to several fundamental outcomes that will invariably alter the thought, behavior and performance of that person. In most cases, the decision of one person affects and alters the lives of the people around him, i.e., family, community and organization. Decision-making shapes the future. For example, the decision to marry ultimately alters the lives of couples and imposes on them the responsibility to live together as husband and wife for the rest of their lives. By this choice, both parties become accountable to one another. Not only has their choice to marry bestowed personal and joint responsibilities on them, but on their friends and families.

Decisions emerge from a deep desire to accomplish a goal, and your goal can be anything that you consider most important for you to achieve within a given time frame. Your ability to make the right decisions daily will reinforce your determination to perform tasks, achieve goals, and become fulfilled. Your life will grow each time you make a decision, no matter how small it might be, and take action towards achieving your goal. Your decision is the gateway to your destiny.

Decision-Making Defined

There are two critical elements to decision-making, risk and uncertainty.

Literally, risk is the chance of an expected outcome that will result in negative consequences. Uncertainty refers to doubt, fear, and worry that something good or bad might happen. Uncertainty occurs when there is a choice to make between two or more alternatives. It is the state of having little or no information to predict a future outcome correctly. Uncertainty leads to the occurrence of risk.

Decision-making is the process of identifying and choosing from more than one alternative action based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. The decision-making process presupposes the existence of alternative options to be considered. Usually, the challenge of the decision-maker is to identify and select the outcome with the highest likelihood of success that is the best fit for the desired goal. Important decisions are often complex in nature and have a high degree of uncertainty. Most decisions are made in an uncertain situation, bringing us to the challenge of uncertainty in decision making. The process of decision-making ideally requires that the decision maker reduces the level of uncertainty sufficiently to allow reasonable choices to be made from the alternative options availab