Friday, April 25, 2003

Decision Making

What should do??? Decision making............

Have you ever asked why you are doing certain things that you are currently doing? Well, it surely must have crossed your mind some time or the other. Either you gave it a really hard thought, and gave up, or you did not think about it any further, or you got to some distance on it successfully, and got to a concrete decision. Well, I've gone a step further, and have put my bungled up thoughts on paper (rather on the public domain for everyone to have a look at). Maybe, they can relate to a few of my thoughts, and for those of you who have been tearing apart their hair (like me) on what to do when confronted with such a decision; well, maybe even all of you could help yourselves by reading this.

Sometimes, rather many a times I have in fact been confronted with such a situation, and most of the time I've thought this to be the best course of action. There is this basic theory that I've formulated, and I sort of use it as a basis for almost all decision making. I think it's generic enough to be applied in alomost all such cases. So, here it goes: "Do something that will directly or indiretly help you or others around you." Ok, they need not be 'around' you, but you pretty much get the picture...... A direct implication of this would be to refrain form doing anyting that has absolutely zero or minimal productivity value form a long term persective with relation to anyone concerned. Do what you feel is right when give two things that can be done at that point or instant of time. Now, here 'right' might not necessarily confirm with the notion of what 'right' might be to others around you or who analyze the situation form a different point of view. This is better understood than said. Do not, I repeat do not do anyting that might make you feel uncomfortable, and give you the label of a conformist. It's better to be a non-conformist, and do something that you feel is the right thing to do. After all, if what you do does not turn out to be the right thing to have done, then you will be the one responsible for your decisions. Consider the scenario when what you do might not be the right thing to have done: Then, you can very well say, ok after analyzing the situation, I think that here's where I went wrong, and I should have done this differently, or in a way that may have affected the final outcome of the decision in a different, or more positive manner. You will be able to confidently say this to yourself, only if that decision you took at that juncture was what you felt was the right thing to be done. If you had done something that you felt was inherently wrong or incorrect and still you went ahead with it, and you face a block somewhere along the way, you will always look back at that juncture and say to yourself: "I should have done that differently." This has at least two direct or indirect negative implications. 1. You might never be able to find the real cause of your failure, or to be more precise, you will never look back at the other junctures to see if you made a wrong turn somewhere else. There will be this kind of prejudice about that particular decision. 2. You won't feel like continuing with whatever task that you have undertaken, and the whole aim of beginning it will be a total waste. You will feel thoroughly disgusted with yourself, and it might even adversley affect youe health. In my opinion, worse than not undertaking a task is not finishing an already undertaked task. This statement has come about because of my own personal experiences. Maybe even you might have experienced some of this, or something vaguely similar to this...... or, maybe not...... The former path of choosing what you think is right will help you futher in making youeself stronger in the respect of making youeself even more conscious about the fact that you, and not some joe, not even the society is responsible for the decisions that you take, and which direcly or indirectly affect you and others around you. You have a certaing responsibility towards the society, or others, or whoever it might be; but, the final decision of anything is in your sole hands. So, choose wisely, so that you will not have to repent later on something that you felt that could have been better at some earlier stage. Also remember this: Life's too short, and there is no guarantee that you'll wake up tomorrow morning......