This week on the Life Palette blog I am focusing on decision making, it is so important that wise decision making skills are on our Life Palette. Nothing will keep you from living as the masterpiece God created you to be quicker than continually making bad decisions. So today I want to take a look at four barriers that if not dealt with will keep you from making wise decisions. As a leader I find that I have to constantly tear down these barriers not only in my own thinking but in those around me.
1. A Small Frame:
As an artist at times I choose the frame before I paint a painting, For instance right now in my studio I have 3 custom frames that I am planning on painting 3 paintings for and they will sell as a set. While that is fun to do at times, it also limits me. By having the frames built first I cannot change the size of the canvas or the compositions.
Unfortunately many people frame their decisions by framing them before they have had a chance to choose the canvas. I have a friend who continually says that you need to think in terms of both/and rather than either/or. When you are making a decision and think either this or that, you have framed your potential decision before making it and limited your options and potential. Remember, you are a masterpiece, think in terms of both/and.
2. Getting To Attached:
When my wife and I bought our first home it was a total rebuild. We bought it for an investment, our plan was to remodel it and sell it. We kept telling ourselves that is it were going to work we needed to not get emotional about the house. We blew it. With both of us being visionaries we could see so far beyond the original remodel plan to the homes potential – we got emotionally attached. The results: we took a broken down old home and made it a beautiful custom home, the problem was it was not the way to make wise decisions and we spent way too much time and money on a house that would never pay us back all, we had invested in it.
To make wise masterpiece decisions you have to detach from the situation emotionally. Look at the big picture, your entire life as a masterpiece. If you are making decisions while being too emotionally attached you will miss the facts and perhaps the faith because it will lead to the next barrier for making wise decisions; Prejudice Information.
3. Prejudice Information:
We’ve all done it: we know what we want so we look for information that supports our desire and usually dismiss facts that contradict anything to the contrary. In other words we lie to ourselves. We so want what we want to be right that we are blinded by it. If you only look at prejudice information you will not make a wise decision.
As an artist, it’s a lot painting one part of the canvas really well and deciding that you will adjust the entire canvas and composition around that one thing. I’ve done it, in fact most artists have and the best thing to do with a piece painted like that is to scrape it. (Check out chapter 10 of my book Life Palette: The Power Of Scraping)
Now that you know the 3 big barriers to making wise masterpiece decisions you need to know how to breakthrough each of these barriers. Tomorrow on Life Palette we will look at the 3 strategies for breaking through each barrier so that wise decision making will always be a part of your Life Palette and you will be able to live as the masterpiece God created you to be.
Next Steps For Wise Decision Making:
Consider which of these barriers keeps you from continually making wise decision. Rate on all three of them on a scale of 1 to 10: 1 meaning it is a barrier that holds you back and 10 meaning you rarely allow it to keep you from making a wise decision. Get prepared to develop a strategy for each area.
