We often think about decisions, in real life, before we take them. We also come across statements like ‘that was the wrong decision’ and ‘in the long run it turned out to be the right decision’.
But the other day when such a statement came up in the conversation I asked myself is any decision wrong or right? Or is the perception of a decision being right or wrong simply a matter of time and frame of mind?
Let us examine the problem with decisions first. The problem with real life decisions is that you can’t play what-if with them. Time is always flowing and you cannot come back to that same instance in time and take a different decision. There is no save-load in life.
Therefore once a decision has been taken there is no way to go back and re-take THAT particular decision. Once the route ahead has been chosen all other routes are closed automatically. In fact the very act of thinking about what to do next signifies a choice about how to proceed.
This means there is no real way of comparing two choices.
Therefore no decision can be right or wrong.
While it may appear right or wrong at a particular instance in time or when we are In a particular frame of mind, there is no guarantee that the evaluation is correct (or incorrect).
Then my question is why worry about decisions taken in the past?
Why decide to worry about a problem with no answer?
Why choose this road ahead?
Following on how can we decide what is the best road ahead at that point of time?
Well we can try and think of the consequences of taking the various different roads ahead. That is where the skill of the decision maker comes into the picture.
Fish Eye View 