drwex | Jul. 20th, 2018

It’s OK to… Say “no.” Speak up. Tell the truth. Ask questions. Believe differently. Change your mind. Prioritize your needs. Learn from your mistakes. Embrace your imperfections. Forgive and seek forgiveness. Begin again, stronger than before.

What can you do to loosen the grip your have on yourself? How can you give yourself a little extra space to make the right decisions today?

On the one hand, I resonate with this. I've long thought that "what is the right action" is the most important question we can ask. I know I don't always do the right action, even within the context of the time and information I have available when I have to make a decisions. But still, I want at least to think about it. I believe strongly in "satisficing" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing). When I read Simon's writing on this back in undergrad psychology I was very taken with it. So sometimes making right decisions is too hard. The return on investment isn't enough. You make a "good enough for now" decision and hope that gets you where you want to go.

But I'm stuck on "give yourself a little extra space". Does that mean taking more time or getting more information? I think of those two things as they keys to making right decisions. Looking back at the intro text, I think I'm pretty good on the saying "no" and telling what I see as my truth. You'd likely laugh if you heard how often my coworkers complain about me changing my mind. They've started writing down design decisions because it's so often that I see how something looks when implemented and I want it changed. "But you SAID..." they tell me. Yeah, that was then. This is now.

I'm also not sure what forgiving oneself and others has to do with making right decisions. I think I may be taking some of this too literally, maybe? Help me out here, please.