The WHY always sets the agenda for the WHAT

Life is such that we are constantly faced with choices. We have many alternatives. Thus, there’s the need to make the most important decision of what to choose and what not to. These alternatives will cost us something in the long run and definitely we need to be careful on what we opt for. If we make certain decisions they either take us to the positive or on the negative in life. The good and the bad of life is that, every decision(s) has a consequence(s). Ultimately, we need to be careful to make the best decision so that we progress to the positive. We need to let the influence of our doing things emanating from decisions we make every day, be such that we are convinced that they will add value to our lives and that we will find joy now and in future pursuing our purpose in life.

Most people will have no problem deciding between a positive and negative choice. Good/positive and bad/negative is relatively universal. Any sober person can make a simple decision about them. However, we are also often faced with very many good options. But how do we decide which one to take? When such is the scenario where the options are all potentially good, what happens?

This forms the basis of our reflections today. What helps to distinguishes between good and great decisions is the why – the reason for existence. It’s the reason why something is and is not. It is the underlying intention of an action and/or a situation. If you do not know why you are doing what you do, then any decision becomes acceptable once it sounds good.

When purpose is unknown, choices abound. The revelation of purpose streamlines the decision making process. It reveals the original intent.

Decisions get their life from purpose. And living without a purpose is like trying to navigate a ship in the ocean without a compass. There will be a lot of motion but no progress. You can move to any direction at any speed without any worry. It’s a vain activity to try navigating in a vast ocean without such a small gadget. In any case, progress is not determined necessarily by how much we move but by how closer we are to where we set out to go to.

When faced with a tough decision, you must begin by elimination. This is the weeding out ideas that just aren’t the most important. Sometimes we may not know what we want, but we know with certainty what we don’t want. We must then do the elimination. And so you ask, ‘Will this decision take me in the direction I was made to go? Will it make me more of what I was established to do, or will it take me away from my original intent?’ This is the WHY that sets the agenda for the WHAT in life. When we know the WHYs in life we will move from the intangible to the tangible in decision making of what is good for us and not the other.

When you do not lose sight of intent and destination, the process of making a decision between very good options will always be simplified. When you know the WHY of WHAT you are doing then your agenda will be straight forward. You can defend the very thing you are currently engaged in.