WANTING WHAT MATTERS Think of yourself as dead

WANTING WHAT MATTERS Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly. -MARCUS AURELIUS, Meditations, Book 7 GOOD DECISION-MAKING COMES down to two things: 1. Knowing how to get what you want 2. Knowing what's worth wanting The first point is about making effective decisions. The second is about making good ones. You might think they're the same, but they are not. Decisions that bring immediate results, like closing a sale or filling a vacancy, may be effective, but they don't necessarily lead to the things that truly matter in life, like trust, love, and health. Good decisions, on the other hand, align with your long-term goals and values, and ultimately bring you the satisfaction and fulfillment that you truly desire in business, relationships, and life. Effective decisions get you the first outcome, while good ones get you the ultimate outcome. All good decisions are effective, but not all effective decisions are good. Making the best judgments comes down to making decisions that get you what you really want-beyond just what you think you want at the moment. In life, we experience regret over both things we've done and things we've failed to do. The worst regret is when we fail to live a life true to ourselves, when we fail to play by our own scoreboard. Each default plays a role in setting us up for regret. The social default prompts us to inherit goals from other people, even if their life circumstances are very different from ours. The inertia default encourages us to continue pursuing the goals we've pursued in the past, even after we've come to realize that achieving them doesn't make us happy. The emotion default sends us this way and that, chasing whatever captures our fancy in the moment, even at the expense of pursuing long-term goals that matter more. And the ego default convinces us to pursue things like wealth, status, and power, even at the expense of happiness and well-being our own and that of the people around us. If you give any of the defaults command of your life, your ultimate destination is regret. Don't live life by another person's scoreboard. Don't let someone else choose your objectives in life. Take responsibility for where you are and where you are headed. Real wisdom doesn't come from chasing success but from building character. As Jim Collins wrote, "There is no effectiveness without discipline, and there is no discipline without character."

— from Leadership & Business (Leadership/Business) · Clear Thinking: The Art and Science of Making Better Decisions by Shane Parrish

In the book

All good decisions are effective, but not all effective ones are good. The worst regret of all is to spend a life playing by someone else's scoreboard. Growth at any cost. There was a long stretch when the whole game was to grow regardless of how inefficient or unprofitable the growth was, because if your competitor showed more top-line growth, they'd raise the money and buy the market. — Leadership & Business (Leadership/Business)

Also belongs to

Related