When someone comes to me with a problem "I…
When someone comes to me with a problem "I ask what the options are and which option has least regrets"
— from Decisions & Choices (Decision/Choice/Focus/Forethought/Consequences)
In the book
"When someone brings me a hard choice, I ask them two things: what are your options — and which one could you live with, looking back, without regret?" (Sample epigraph — replace with one of your own, or with a line of mine you remember me saying.) We have learned to fly within ourselves and among others. […] And finally, the test I have used my whole life and most want to give you. When you are torn between options, set them side by side and ask of each one: if I do not choose this, will I have regret? — and then take the path that leaves you with no regret, because regret is the single hardest thing to get out of your system. Pair it with a definition that has freed me: a decision made wisely with the information you had at the time is never a regret, even if it turned out badly, because you would make the same call again. […] Use simple sorting labels. Run incoming demands through quick buckets — critical, necessary, desirable, out — so the trivial never crowds out the vital; and weigh a choice partly by whether it helps you avoid future frictions down the road. Apply the regret test — take the path of no regret — and ask whether you chose courage over comfort. To my children, and to theirs: — Decisions & Choices (Decision/Choice/Focus/Forethought/Consequences)