This book has a simple premise; our decisions determine our story.  Further, our decisions determine our legacy, and trajectory of the lives of those coming along behind us.  And we know this - private decisions have a public outcomes; our personal decisions won’t forever be personal.  The decisions we make really do matter.  Even the seemingly trivial ones often compound and become part of the bigger story.

Andy didn’t say this, but in listening, I thought about this as well - we make TONS of decisions.  Tons of them.  And we get tired and fatigued...that is actually a thing in the executive coaching world - decision fatigue.  So a framework like we are going to explore can help to automate decision-making in a way that forces us to filter the decision and not just plow through on autopilot when we are tired.

Andy also gave us one of my favorite quotes of his: most people don’t decide to ruin their lives intentionally, but most people don’t plan NOT to.  Let me say that again, but it is so strong - most people don’t decide to ruin their lives intentionally, but most people don’t plan NOT to.  These questions are part of a plan NOT to ruin our lives.  And we all know this, that we may not be good at sales, but we are all good at selling ourselves.

So, when should you pause and use this framework?  Whenever we start selling ourselves.  Whenever we start selling ourselves we should pause and work through these 5 questions.  And why is that?  Because rarely do we have to sell ourselves on a good idea!

Here are the 5 questions:

These are so simple...yet they are so illuminating if you really think about them.  I have already created a template for journaling and I am going to commit to using this framework, literally through writing, as I make decisions over the next 30 days, even on seemingly trivial decisions, just to be sure I turn this into a habit for myself personally.