No time machine ... only heating seeking missiles.

We can’t fix where we start in life …

There is no time machine we can use to go back and fix the past - we can’t fix who our parents were, where we were born and a myriad of other things that have preceded our existence to this point. What we can do is attend to our current circumstances, make good decisions, take action and create our future. 

For the whiners, this is an unpopular notion. I though, have long-since realised, that whining or complaining about our past, achieves nothing. I have always preferred to take action.

Decision-making, in many cases much more than circumstances, effect how our lives unfold. This is not a popular notion; many, many people find it easier to blame their circumstances for their lack of success; or point to how others are doing well because of their ‘privilege’, etc. It is difficult for us to ‘own’ our decisions; especially our bad decisions; and I have made plenty!

I am reminded of the gambler who is happy to tell you about their latest win - but who never speaks about their latest loss. Owning our bad decisions can be difficult, but it can also be very, very instructive.

Many make decisions based on intuition/feeling/gut instinct … which can be (sometimes) surprisingly effective. Through use of the ‘rule of thumb’, we can make decisions quickly and more easily sometimes. Others, like to have all the information they can find before weighing it up and making their decision (this is the way I most often like to decide on things) - but this at times, and with certain people, can lead to mental ‘log jam’ and make it difficult for some to ‘pull the tigger’ and take action.

No matter how we come to our decisions though, there his little doubt that these decisions are largely responsible for how our lives unfold. We should own our decisions; both good and bad. Learn from the bad ones and from the good ones alike. 

Someone one told me (Robert Kiyosaki, for those interested) - that our decision-making process is kind of analogous to the way a heat-seeking missile works. It heads off in a random direction, then asks a simple question, ‘hotter or colder?’ - and then makes  course-corrections - eventually, smaller and smaller corrections, until it zero’s in on the target. I remember being impressed by this … as it gave me permission to make bad decisions (colder) but as long as I realised it and was willing to ‘course-correct’ then it could be seen, not only as good, but an integral part of success-seeking behaviour. 

Decide - Own - Learn - Decide again. Oh - and never replace Own with Blame. That is a sure fire way to kill the process dead in it’s tracks.

• JBW