Making critical decisions in any role and in life, in general, is a given.

It is known as humans; we tend to focus on and are motivated to have a priority of preference to come from one of three dimensions when we make a decision, including:

  • The Past
  • The Present
  • The Future

The danger of basing any decision on any one of these areas is that things can get missed.

The dangers of one-dimensional decisions

For example, if you make decisions and only look at how that may affect the future, then you will miss looking at the “Past” and the “Present”. You could be missing lessons from the past that could help you with the decisions and/or miss how this decision will impact the present.

Being highly future-focused, I have a reminder of Past Present Future on a wall in my office.

When making decisions, I consciously refer to this, and only the other day, I used the below framework. As I was mapping out a new “Whole-Self Leaders” event for  2020,  I reminded myself not just to jump in (future-focused) and base my thoughts and plan on all 3 areas.

Questions I ask myself when making a decision:

 The Past

  • What have I done or experienced that I could learn from or use to help with this decision?
  • What materials, IP, workshop content, and ideas have I run before that I could incorporate?

The Present

  • How will this decision affect me and others around me right now?
  • What time can I allocate to this?
  • What will I have to give up to make time to do this?

The Future

  • How will this impact my future?
  • What will this contribute to the world and my clients?
  • How is this aligned to my brand?
  • Is this really what is next?

[bctt tweet=”To communicate and connect more effectively with others, notice what area they base their decisions on. Not appreciating and understanding this, can cause conflict and a communication breakdown in itself.” username=”Renee_Giarrusso”]

If a colleague always refers to the past “When we did that before….” always incorporate questions around the impact of the “present” and the “future”.

Lead to be Limitless

If this article has resonated with you in any way – I’d love to hear your thoughts – get in touch. .  Being in service to my clients is why I do what I do, and your feedback, insight, and suggestions are always embraced.

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Renée is a mentor, coach, expert facilitator and keynote speaker. She is the author of ‘Limitless Leadership’ and co-author of ‘Leaders of Influence’.

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