Walk me through it
Bring your own choice. Leave with a card you keep.
You brought your work from another room.
Step 1 of 9: Name the choice
What exactly are you deciding, and by when?
Too big to answer? Name the part you have to decide first. Fix it starts the same way.
Step 2 of 9: Widen the options
Write down at least three, even one that seems silly.
If you are stuck, ask:
- What if you did neither?
- What would you tell a friend to do?
- What does each one cost? Count the cost
Why at least three
With two options a choice turns into yes or no, and the best answer may not be on the list. A third one, even a silly one, makes you look sideways: doing neither, doing both, doing it later, or doing a smaller version first.
The options you write here become the columns you score in step 4, so a wider list now gives you more to compare later.
Step 3 of 9: What matters
List what matters to you here. Weigh each from 0 to 5.
Two options, so put each reason on the side it pulls toward. Then tap the dots: how much does it weigh to you?
Ideas for common choices
Learn the method in Weigh it.
Step 4 of 9: Score each option
How well does each option do on each thing? 0 is not at all, 5 is very well.
Total: each score times its weight, added up.
Your balance has weighed it. Here it is as a ledger.
Name at least two options, then score them here. Widen the options
Consider the opposite
Why this helps: Check your thinking.
Step 5 of 9: Who and what it touches
Tick each one this choice reaches. Add a few words on how.
Follow it further in See ahead.
Step 6 of 9: Look ahead
How will you feel about it in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years?
A pre-mortem
Go further in See ahead.
Step 7 of 9: Ask counsel, and pray
Who will you ask? Include one person with no stake in it.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
James 1:5In context. James, writing to believers going through trials: anyone who lacks wisdom should ask God, who gives generously. A promise about asking, not a way around thinking.
How to weigh what you hear: Ask counsel.
Step 8 of 9: Decide
Which one will you do? Then say it in your own words.
Scores are a guide, not a verdict. If you chose against them, the reason is where to say why.
Step 9 of 9: Set a date to look back
Pick a day to ask yourself: did it work out?
Why set a date to look back
Looking back is the last of George Pólya’s four steps on Fix it, and the one most people skip. A date makes it happen. Writing down now what right and wrong would look like keeps you honest later, when it is easy to remember it differently.
What Scripture says
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6In context. Trust the LORD with all your heart rather than your own understanding; acknowledge him in all your ways and he will make your paths straight.
Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.
Proverbs 16:3In context. Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will be established. About entrusting plans to God, not a promise that any plan we make will succeed.
So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12In context. A prayer of Moses about how short life is: teach us to number our days, so we gain a heart of wisdom.