This thought experiment will help you to analyze your priorities
Try this short, non-conforming approach to finding out who and what matters the most
SCENARIO
Imagine having lived a long and fulfilling life and passing of natural causes. You are given a once and forever opportunity…
To send an email. To anyone you’ve known personally. Living or dead.
Follow along with the guiding questions and let this simple thought experiment help you to better understand what your real, deep down priorities are, and whether you might want to re-evaluate them… or not.
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Q1. Who came to mind first?
- A child
- A former lover
- One of your parents
- Someone who supported you
- Someone who cheated you
- Someone you stood up for
- Someone you treated poorly
Q2. Did you second-guess your initial choice/feeling? Why?
Q3. Who is your final choice?
EVALUATE YOUR CHOICE
Q4. What are the reasons for your choice?
Q5. Are you surprised by your final choice and reasons? Do they differ from what you anticipated when you first read the scenario?
Q6. How do you feel about your current priorities and how they are influencing your reasoning in this situation?
PERSONAL GROWTH
Q7. What have you learned about yourself after performing this exercise?
Q8. Is there anything you might like to change about your selection method?
FOLLOW-UP EXERCISE
The same scenario, but this time you can choose three persons to email instead of one. But you must rank them from first to last.
Q. Given the expanded choices and the ranking requirement, does this make it easier or harder for you to choose? Why is that?
DISCUSSION
We humans often tend to judge ourselves harshly. Do you ever feel that your choices or feelings are not *as valid* as they should be?
I think that critical thinking must always be encouraged and employed throughout life. But how can we apply it to our decision-making evaluation criteria?
One place to start is to ask yourself if you are someone who prioritizes logic and reason (L&R) when making choices and decisions, or emotions (E)? Or, do you, perhaps, believe that both should play a role in decision-making? If so, then what is your ratio?
Personally, although I regard having a well-developed emotional quotient (EQ) as being very important as both a sender and a receiver of information, I still make my decisions based primarily on L&R — perhaps something along the lines of 85/15 in favor of that.
But the real question is, whatever your own ratio looks like… Do you think you arrived at it using logic, or emotions? And is that really the best approach when deciding who to email in this scenario?
Q. Furthermore, should the type of choice we need to make impact our thinking process leading up to it, or should that process be developed to a point where it is robust enough to become an “on-size-fit-all” approach?
CONCLUSION
For my part, I think that a reasonable approach to decision-making involves utilizing a mix of L&R and emotionally-driven reasoning. It feels like I probably favor a more robust, *one-size-fit-all* approach overall.
What is your chosen approach?
All the best,
Pascal
PS: You can go here to read more personal growth and development-related articles and stories, or here to read about me.
