DECISION-MAKING

'Whenever I don't know what to do, I watch what I am doing.'
Elizabeth Strout, Oh William! p.155.

THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL OF DECISION MAKING

'One of the things I am always telling my children is that doing the right thing often comes with painful consequences. We like to believe in a sort of prosperity gospel of decision making: if you do the right thing, blessings follow. Life will be the way you think you deserve. However, doing the right thing often comes with the pain of self-discipline, as well as consequences such as being left out, rejected, or as we see with the early church, persecuted.'

Aimee Byrd, Recovering from Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, p.201. 

THE DANGER OF REGRETTING DECISIONS

'"If I knew then what I know now, I never would have made this commitment" is the phrase I have heard from celibate and married people alike. It strikes me that every decision and commitment is, in the light of subsequent information and experience, ill-informed. That's just the way life is. Whether we would or would not "do it again" is hardly the point. The point is whether or not we are actively pursuing the fulfillment of the commitment we have made. When we begin to concentrate on what our life isn't, and neglect to reflect on and actively pursue what it is, trouble will almost certainly follow.' 

Keith Clark, An Experience of Celibacy, p.58. 

VOCATION

'At what points do my talents and deep gladness meet the world's deep need?'

Frederick Buechner in David Brooks, The Road to Character, p.22.

SEARCHING FOR TRUTH

'...each individual reasoner is really good at one thing: finding evidence to support the position she or he already holds, usually for intuitive reasons. We should not expect individuals to produce good, open-minded, truth-seeking reasoning, particularly when self-interest or reputational concerns are in play. But if you put individuals together in the right way, such that some of the individuals can use their reasoning powers to disconfirm the claims of others, and all individuals feel some common bond or shared fate that allows them to interact civilly, you can create a group that ends up producing good reasoning as an emergent property of the social system. This is why it's so important to have intellectual and ideological diversity within any group or institution whose goal is to find truth (such as an intelligence agency or community of scientists) or to produce good public policy (such as a legislature or advisory board).' 

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, p.105.

DECISIONS

'Remembering how we feel when others detonate our lives with their decision making will help us remember those who are in our way and at our whim when the decisions are ours to make.' 

Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus, p.145. 

GOOD DECISIONS

'The first step to making better decisions is to see ourselves as we really are, to look inside the black box of the human brain. We need to honestly assess our flaws and talents, our strengths and shortcomings.'

Jonah Lehrer, The Decisive Moment, p.247.

GOOD DECISIONS

'...once you've developed expertise in a particular area - once you've made the requisite mistakes - it's important to trust your emotions when making decisions in that domain. It is feelings, after all, and not the prefrontal cortex, that capture the wisdom of experience.'

Jonah Lehrer, The Decisive Moment, p.237.

GOOD DECISIONS

'The same lesson can be applied to the brain: when making decisions, actively resist the urge to supress the argument. Instead, take the time to listen to what all the different brain areas have to say. Godd decisions rarely emerge from a false consensus. Alfred P. Sloan, the chairman of General Motors during its heyday, once adjourned a board meeting soon after it began. "Gentlemen," Sloan said, "I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here...Then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about."'

Jonah Lehrer, The Decisive Moment, p.209.