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How Good People Make Tough Choices: A Guide to Ethical Decision-Making
Introduction:
We all face them: those moments where the path forward isn't clear, where right and wrong blur, and where the consequences of our actions feel heavy with uncertainty. These are tough choices, and even the most well-intentioned among us can struggle to navigate them effectively. This comprehensive guide dives deep into the decision-making processes of good people, exploring the frameworks, principles, and practical strategies they employ to make ethical choices, even when the stakes are high. We'll explore the psychology behind moral dilemmas, the importance of self-awareness, and the power of empathy in shaping our choices. By understanding these elements, you'll be better equipped to approach your own tough choices with confidence and integrity.
1. Understanding the Landscape of Difficult Decisions:
Before we delve into how good people make tough choices, it's crucial to understand what constitutes a tough choice. These aren't simple dilemmas with obvious answers. Tough choices often involve:
Conflicting Values: The choice pits one deeply held value against another. For example, loyalty versus truth, personal gain versus societal benefit.
Uncertainty and Risk: The outcome is unclear, and there's a potential for negative consequences regardless of the decision.
Emotional Toll: The decision carries significant emotional weight, potentially causing stress, guilt, or anxiety.
Stakeholders Involved: The choice impacts multiple individuals or groups, each with their own interests and perspectives.
Recognizing the complexity of these situations is the first step towards navigating them effectively.
2. The Role of Self-Awareness in Ethical Decision-Making:
Good people making tough choices often possess a high degree of self-awareness. This means understanding their own values, biases, and limitations. Self-reflection is key:
Identifying Your Values: What principles guide your life? Honesty? Fairness? Compassion? Understanding your core values provides a moral compass to guide your decision-making.
Recognizing Biases: We all have unconscious biases that can skew our judgments. Actively seeking to identify and mitigate these biases is vital for objective decision-making.
Acknowledging Limitations: No one is perfect. Recognizing your own limitations – your knowledge gaps, emotional vulnerabilities, or potential for error – allows you to seek external perspectives and advice when needed.
3. Empathy: Walking in Another's Shoes:
Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, is a cornerstone of ethical decision-making. It allows us to consider the impact of our choices on others, broadening our perspective beyond our own self-interest:
Perspective-Taking: Actively trying to see the situation from the viewpoints of all stakeholders involved, considering their needs, concerns, and potential consequences.
Compassionate Consideration: Approaching the decision with a genuine concern for the well-being of those affected.
Minimizing Harm: Striving to make the choice that minimizes harm and maximizes benefit for all involved, even if it means personal sacrifice.
4. Seeking External Perspectives:
While self-awareness and empathy are crucial, seeking input from trusted sources can provide valuable insights and help avoid blind spots.
Mentors and Advisors: Consulting experienced individuals who can offer guidance and different perspectives.
Trusted Friends and Family: Sharing your dilemma with those close to you can provide emotional support and alternative viewpoints.
Ethical Frameworks: Employing established ethical frameworks (like utilitarianism, deontology, or virtue ethics) can provide a structured approach to analyzing the situation.
5. The Process of Deliberation and Reflection:
Making a tough choice isn't a hasty affair. It requires careful deliberation and thoughtful reflection:
Gather Information: Thoroughly investigate the situation, gathering all relevant facts and perspectives before making a decision.
Weigh the Options: Carefully consider the potential consequences of each possible choice, both positive and negative.
Reflect on Your Feelings: Acknowledge and process your emotional responses to the situation, understanding how your feelings might be influencing your judgment.
Document Your Reasoning: Writing down your thought process can help clarify your thinking and provide a record of your decision-making process.
6. Living with the Consequences:
Even with careful deliberation, tough choices can have unforeseen consequences. It's important to:
Accept Responsibility: Take ownership of your decisions and their outcomes, both positive and negative.
Learn from Mistakes: If the outcome isn't what you hoped for, use it as an opportunity to learn and grow, improving your decision-making process in the future.
Seek Forgiveness: If your choice has caused harm, sincerely seek forgiveness from those affected.
7. Cultivating Ethical Habits:
Ethical decision-making isn't a one-time event; it's a continuous process of learning and growth. Cultivate these habits:
Regular Self-Reflection: Make time for regular self-reflection, assessing your values, biases, and decision-making processes.
Continuous Learning: Stay informed about ethical issues and principles, expanding your understanding of moral dilemmas.
Seek Feedback: Actively solicit feedback on your choices and behavior, using it to refine your approach.
Article Outline:
Title: How Good People Make Tough Choices: A Guide to Ethical Decision-Making
Introduction: Hook, overview of the guide.
Chapter 1: Understanding Difficult Decisions (Conflicting values, uncertainty, emotional toll, stakeholders).
Chapter 2: Self-Awareness (Identifying values, recognizing biases, acknowledging limitations).
Chapter 3: Empathy (Perspective-taking, compassionate consideration, minimizing harm).
Chapter 4: Seeking External Perspectives (Mentors, friends, ethical frameworks).
Chapter 5: Deliberation and Reflection (Information gathering, weighing options, reflecting on feelings, documenting reasoning).
Chapter 6: Living with Consequences (Responsibility, learning from mistakes, seeking forgiveness).
Chapter 7: Cultivating Ethical Habits (Self-reflection, continuous learning, seeking feedback).
Conclusion: Recap and call to action.
(The body of this outline has already been addressed in the main article above.)
FAQs:
1. What if my values conflict directly? Prioritize based on the long-term consequences and potential impact on others. Sometimes, compromise is necessary.
2. How can I overcome my biases when making decisions? Actively seek diverse perspectives and challenge your own assumptions. Consider using structured decision-making frameworks.
3. What if I'm afraid to make the wrong choice? Acknowledge the fear, but don't let it paralyze you. Make the best decision you can based on the information available.
4. How can I tell if I'm being truly empathetic? Ask yourself how your decision would affect you if you were in the other person's shoes.
5. Is there a perfect ethical framework to follow? No single framework applies perfectly to every situation. Consider the context and choose a framework appropriate to the dilemma.
6. How do I deal with guilt after making a difficult decision? Process your emotions, learn from the experience, and seek support if needed.
7. What if I don't have access to mentors or advisors? Utilize online resources, ethical guidelines, and engage in thoughtful self-reflection.
8. How can I improve my self-awareness? Practice mindfulness, journaling, and seeking honest feedback from others.
9. Is it ever okay to compromise my values? Rarely. However, finding creative solutions that balance your values with the needs of others is often possible.
Related Articles:
1. Ethical Leadership in the Workplace: Discussing how leaders can navigate ethical dilemmas and foster a culture of integrity.
2. The Psychology of Moral Decision-Making: Exploring the cognitive processes involved in ethical choices.
3. Utilitarianism vs. Deontology: A Comparison: Examining two major ethical frameworks and their applications.
4. Overcoming Cognitive Biases in Decision-Making: Strategies for mitigating common biases in judgment.
5. The Importance of Mindfulness in Ethical Living: How mindfulness practices can enhance ethical decision-making.
6. Building Emotional Intelligence for Better Decisions: Connecting emotional intelligence with making thoughtful ethical choices.
7. Conflict Resolution Strategies for Ethical Dilemmas: Techniques for resolving disagreements in situations involving ethical considerations.
8. Ethical Decision-Making Models and Frameworks: A review of different models used to guide ethical choices.
9. The Role of Integrity in Personal and Professional Life: Discussing the importance of integrity in all aspects of life.
| how good people make tough choices: How Good People Make Tough Choices Rushworth M. Kidder, 1996 Every day, people face tough choices in which their basic moral principles seem to be in conflict. Now, the Director of the Institute for Global Ethics offers a clear strategy for solving ethical dilemmas. Rushworth Kidder explains ends-based, rule-based, and care-based decision making--and uses real-life examples to show how these principles can applied to thorny problems. |
| how good people make tough choices: Tough Choices Carly Fiorina, 2007-09-25 The New York Times bestseller by the most talked about woman in American business. For five and a half years, Carly Fiorina led Hewlett-Packard through major internal changes, the worst technology slump in decades, and the most controversial merger in high-tech history. Yet just as things were about to turn around, she was abruptly fired, making front-page news around the world. Fiorina has been the subject of endless debate and speculation. But she has never spoken publicly about crucial details of her time at HP, about the mysterious circumstances of her firing, or about many other aspects of her landmark career. Until now. In this extraordinarily candid memoir, she reveals the private person behind the public persona. She shares her triumphs and failures, her deepest fears and most painful confrontations. She shows us what it was like to be an ambitious young woman at stodgy old AT&T and then a fast- track executive during the spin-off of Lucent Technologies. Above all, she describes how she drove the transformation of legendary but deeply troubled HP, in the face of fierce opposition. One of Fiorina's big themes is that in the end business isn't just about numbers; it's about people.This book goes beyond the caricature of the powerful woman executive to show who she really is and what the rest of us male or female, in business or not can learn from the tough choices she made along the way. |
| how good people make tough choices: Good Kids, Tough Choices Rushworth M. Kidder, 2010-08-20 A practical analysis and inspiring guide for teaching kids ethical fitness Parents are beginning to realize that deficiencies in ethics and character are becoming a big problem among our nation's children. According to the latest data, lying, cheating, and rampant insensitivity to other people are increasingly common. What can parents do? In this book, ethics expert Rushworth Kidder shows how to customize interventions to a child's age and temperament. He encourages parents not to give up, since what they do can always make a difference, regardless of how long or deep the bad habits of dishonesty may be. Encourages parents to intervene early and re-establish children on the right course Explores the keys to ethical behavior: honesty, responsibility, respect, fairness, and compassion All of Kidder's practical advice is based on the latest psychological and neuroscientific research about how kids develop character and learn what's right and wrong. |
| how good people make tough choices: Moral Courage Rushworth M. Kidder, 2009-03-17 Why did a group of teenagers watch a friend die instead of putting their own reputations at risk? Why did a top White House official decide to come clean and accept a prison sentence during Watergate? Why did a finance executive turn down millions out of respect for her employer? Why are some willing to risk their futures to uphold principles? What gives us the strength to stand up for what we believe? As these questions suggest, the topic of moral courage is front and center in today's culture. Enron, Arthur Andersen, the U.S. Olympic Committee, abusive priests, cheating students, domestic violence -- all these remind us that taking ethical stands should be a higher priority in our culture. Why, when people discern wrongdoing, are they sometimes unready, unable, or unwilling to act? In a book rich with examples, Rushworth Kidder reveals that moral courage is the bridge between talking ethics and doing ethics. Defining it as a readiness to endure danger for the sake of principle, he explains that the courage to act is found at the intersection of three elements: action based on core values, awareness of the risks, and a willingness to endure necessary hardship. By exploring how moral courage spurs us to strive for core values, he demonstrates the benefits of ethical action to the individual and to society -- and the severe consequences that can result from remaining morally dormant. Moral Courage puts indispensable concepts and tools into our hands, equipping us to respond to the increasingly complicated moral challenges we face at work, at home, and in our communities. It enables us to make clear, confident decisions by exploring some litmus-test questions: Is the benefit worth the risk? Am I motivated by my desire to uphold my beliefs or just to impose them on others? Will my actions create collateral damage among those with no stake in the outcome? While physical courage may no longer be a necessary survival skill or an essential rite of passage out of childhood, few would dispute the growing need for moral courage as the true gauge of maturity. Treating this subject not as an esoteric branch of philosophy but as a practical necessity for modern life, Kidder deftly leads us to a clear understanding of what moral courage is, what it does, and how to get it. |
| how good people make tough choices: High-Performance Ethics Wes Cantrell, James R. Lucas, 2013-04-26 Do you have to lower your ethical standards in order to succeed at your job? High-Performance Ethics authors Wes Cantrell and James Lucas say that the answer is no. The authors outline ways to make ethical decisions (based on the Ten Commandments) that lead to highly successful business practices. High-Performance Ethics includes tips on how to lead a team with integrity, practical tools for resisting the pressure to compromise workplace standards, and encouragement for workers who want to see strong businesses—and strong values—thrive. 10 Principles: First Things Only (priorities) Ditch the Distractions Align with Reality (never claim support for a bad cause) Find Symmetry Respect the Wise Protecct the Souls Commit to the Relationships Spread the Wealth Speak the Truth Limit Your Desires |
| how good people make tough choices: Everyday Ethics Joshua Halberstam, 1994-04-01 “The perfect handbook for understanding what constitutes moral relations with friends, enemies, and one’s own self.” —Booklist In an age when most of us spend more time thinking about what movie we’ll see than about how we want to lead our lives, nothing could be more timely and helpful than Everyday Ethics. In this refreshingly original book, Joshua Halberstam shows us how to develop a moral imagination—and have fun while doing it. Halberstam demolishes the clichés of both religion and psychotherapy and entices us into looking at the small actions that make up the big picture of our character and values. Should we really refrain from making judgments? Should we let our conscience be our guide even if it urges us not to pay our taxes? Halberstam has something intriguing to say about these and many other issues. Witty and entertaining, Everyday Ethics is the moral equivalent of an aerobic dance session, as exhilarating as it is instructive. |
| how good people make tough choices: How Good People Make Tough Choices Rushworth M Kidder, 2006-02-28 Should you take a much-needed vacation or save money for your children's education? Should you protect the endangered owl or maintain jobs for loggers? How do you handle questions such as these? We frequently face ethical dilemmas in our daily lives, and few have trouble with the right vs. wrong choices. However, the right vs. right dilemmas, in which neither choice is clearly or widely accepted as wrong, many times present obstacles that call for value-based decisions, and that's where we often need help. Kidder -- the founder of the Institute for Global Ethics -- teaches us how to think for ourselves in order to resolve any ethical dilemma, from the personal to the philosophical. Unique in its approach and full of illustrative anecdotes, How Good People Make Tough Choices is an indispensable resource for arriving at sound conclusions when facing tough choices. |
| how good people make tough choices: Decisive Chip Heath, Dan Heath, 2013-03-26 The four principles that can help us to overcome our brains' natural biases to make better, more informed decisions--in our lives, careers, families and organizations. In Decisive, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Made to Stick and Switch, tackle the thorny problem of how to overcome our natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions, about our work, lives, companies and careers. When it comes to decision making, our brains are flawed instruments. But given that we are biologically hard-wired to act foolishly and behave irrationally at times, how can we do better? A number of recent bestsellers have identified how irrational our decision making can be. But being aware of a bias doesn't correct it, just as knowing that you are nearsighted doesn't help you to see better. In Decisive, the Heath brothers, drawing on extensive studies, stories and research, offer specific, practical tools that can help us to think more clearly about our options, and get out of our heads, to improve our decision making, at work and at home. |
| how good people make tough choices: Creating Great Choices Jennifer Riel, Roger L. Martin, 2017-08-29 The rarest of business books that teaches decision makers how to think, not what to think. - Malcolm Gladwell When it comes to our hardest choices, it can seem as though making trade-offs is inevitable. But what about those crucial times when accepting the obvious trade-off just isn't good enough? What do we do when the choices in front of us don't get us what we need? Rather than choosing the least worst option, Creating Great Choices offers a model that guides you towards a new and superior answer... integrative thinking. First introduced by world-renowned strategic thinker Roger Martin in The Opposable Mind, integrative thinking is an approach to problem solving that uses opposing ideas as the basis for innovation. Now, in Creating Great Choices, Martin and his longtime thinking partner Jennifer Riel vividly illustrate how integrative thinking works, and how to do it. The book includes fresh stories of successful integrative thinkers that will demystify the process of creative problem solving, as well as practical tools and exercises to help readers engage with the ideas. And it lays out the authors' four-step methodology for creating great choices, which can be applied in virtually any context. The result is a replicable, thoughtful approach to finding a third and better way to make important choices in the face of unacceptable trade‐offs. Insightful and instructive, Creating Great Choices blends storytelling, theory, and hands-on advice to help any leader or manager facing a tough choice. |
| how good people make tough choices: Inside the Security Mind Kevin Day, 2003 A guide to managing the process of securing an enterprise network, covering all aspects from perimeter security to application security. |
| how good people make tough choices: The Ambition Decisions Hana Schank, Elizabeth Wallace, 2018-06-19 These are the 'know your value' conversations that we need to have. These women--their challenges, choices, and successes--are all of us. --Mika Brzezinski Over the last sixty years, women's lives have transformed radically from generation to generation. Without a template to follow--a way to peek into the future to catch a glimpse of what leaving this job or marrying that person might mean to us decades from now--women make important decisions blindly, groping for a way forward, winging it, and hoping it all works out. As they faced unexpectedly fraught decisions about their own lives, journalists Hana Schank and Elizabeth Wallace found themselves wondering about the women they'd graduated alongside. What happened to these women who seemed set to reap the rewards of second-wave feminism, on the brink of taking over the world? Where did their ambition lead them? So they tracked down their classmates and, over several hundred hours of interviews, gathered and mapped data about real women's lives that has been missing from our conversations about women and the workplace. Whether you're deciding if you should pass up a promotion in favor of more flex time, planning when to get pregnant, or wondering what the ramifications are of being the only person in your house who ever unloads the dishwasher, The Ambition Decisions is a guide to the changes that may seem arbitrary but are life defining, by women who've been there. Organized by theme, each chapter draws on real women's stories of facing down crisis, transition, and decision-making to illustrate broader trends Schank and Wallace observed. Each chapter wraps up with a useful bulleted list of questions to consider and tips to integrate that will guide women of all ages along the way to finding purpose and passion in work and life. |
| how good people make tough choices: The Law of Good People Yuval Feldman, 2018-06-07 This book argues that overcoming people's inability to recognize their own wrongdoing is the most important but regrettably neglected area of the behavioral approach to law. |
| how good people make tough choices: TOUGH CHOICES DANIEL. SOKOL, 2018 |
| how good people make tough choices: No Easy Answers Donald R. Gallo, 2011-04-13 This anthology features stories about individuals who find themselves in situations that test their strength of character. They are called upon to make moral choices, face the consequences of their actions, and consider what it means to do the right thing. From computer blackmail, peer pressure, and gang violence to drug use, unwanted pregnancy, guilt and atonement, these characters face decisions that may affect the rest of their lives. There are many tough choices; there are no easy answers. |
| how good people make tough choices: Tough Call Matt Popovits, 2016-09-07 Life is full of tough calls and daunting decisions. The question isn't if you'll face a big decision in the future, but how you'll face the tough call that's guaranteed to come your way. Think about it. There are wedding proposals to ponder, college applications to submit, career moves to make, homes to sell, and confrontations to consider. And, knowing how poorly things could go, we sometimes find ourselves facing these decisions with a deep fear of future regret. The pressure is on. Or is it? Short and straightforward, yet full of practical insight and spiritual truths, Tough Call, will help you see that the Christian faith offers a mindset to confidently and joyfully make your next big decision. More importantly you'll see that you can face life with your fears recognized, your peace maximized, and your hope anchored in something greater than your ability to get it right. Readers familiar with authors like Acuff, Chan, and Tchividjian will resonate with Matt Popovits's witty, practical, and gospel-centered take on complicated topics. Tough Call is an enjoyable and essential read for any and all facing a major decision. |
| how good people make tough choices: Think Again Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, Andrew Campbell, 2009-02-03 Why do smart and experienced leaders make flawed, even catastrophic, decisions? Why do people keep believing they have made the right choice, even with the disastrous result staring them in the face? And how can you be sure you're making the right decision--without the benefit of hindsight? Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell show how the usually beneficial processes of the human mind can become traps when we face big decisions. The authors show how the shortcuts our brains have learned to take over millennia of evolution can derail our decision making. Think Again offers a powerful model for making better decisions, describing the key red flags to watch for and detailing the decision-making safeguards we need. Using examples from business, politics, and history, Think Again deconstructs bad decisions, as they unfolded in real time, to show how you can avoid the same fate. |
| how good people make tough choices: Top Five Regrets of the Dying Bronnie Ware, 2019-08-13 Revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide with translations in 29 languages. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found herself working in palliative care. During the time she spent tending to those who were dying, Bronnie's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had cared for had expressed. The post gained so much momentum that it was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. At the request of many, Bronnie subsequently wrote a book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, to share her story. Bronnie has had a colourful and diverse life. By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for everyone, if we make the right choices, to die with peace of mind. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues while we still have the time. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a courageous, life-changing book that will leave you feeling more compassionate and inspired to live the life you are truly here to live. |
| how good people make tough choices: A New Introduction to Islam Daniel W. Brown, 2011-08-24 The second edition of this student-friendly textbook explores the origins, major features and lasting influence of the Islamic tradition. Traces the development of Muslim beliefs and practices against the background of social and cultural contexts extending from North Africa to South and Southeast Asia Fully revised for the second edition, with completely new opening and closing chapters considering key issues facing Islam in the 21st century Focuses greater attention on everyday practices, the role of women in Muslim societies, and offers additional material on Islam in America Includes detailed chronologies, tables summarizing key information, useful maps and diagrams, and many more illustrations |
| how good people make tough choices: My Magical Choices Becky Cummings, 2020-11-03 |
| how good people make tough choices: Tough Management: The 7 Winning Ways to Make Tough Decisions Easier, Deliver the Numbers, and Grow the Business in Good Times and Bad Chuck Martin, 2005-05-10 Based on more than two years of surveys of more than 2,000 senior executives and managers, Tough Management may be one of the most important and practical business books of our time. Bestselling author, weekly columnist, and sought-after speaker Chuck Martin has tapped into his research firm's vast network of business connections to discover that 80 percent of executives and managers are experiencing increased levels of work stress. On the bright side, Martin has found that tough times have brought out the best in the world's most successful leaders and managers. And now, in his groundbreaking new book, he offers a refreshing bottom-line approach to what really matters in today's difficult market--and what really works in today's demanding workplace. The seven skills every manager should know: 1.Focus on Results 2.Force the Hard Decisions 3.Communicate Clearly 4.Remain Flexible 5.Prove Your Value to the Company 6.Force Collaboration 7.Don't Be a Tough Guy Using these practical, powerful, and proven techniques, Martin reveals how other business leaders have met the demand to do more, deliver more, and increase more--without raising stress levels. By focusing on actual results and forcing the hard decisions, you can learn to communicate and collaborate while remaining flexible. It's one of the few business books available that provide real solutions to real challenges. Because when the going gets tough, smart managers get Tough Management--and get real results. |
| how good people make tough choices: Moral Choices Scott Rae, 2009-12-15 With its unique union of theory and application and its well-organized, easy-to-use design, Moral Choices has earned its place as the standard text for college ethics courses. This third edition offers extensive updates, revisions, and brand new material, all designed to help students develop a sound and current basis for making ethical decisions in today's complex postmodern culture. Moral Choices outlines the distinctive elements of Christian ethics while avoiding undue dogmatism. The book also introduces other ethical systems and their key proponents, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant. After describing a seven-step procedure for tackling ethical dilemmas, author Scott Rae uses case studies to help students think critically and biblically about ? Abortion ? Reproductive Technologies ? Euthanasia ? Capital Punishment ? Sexual Ethics ? The Morality of War ? Genetic Technologies and Human Cloning ? NEW: Ethics and Economics New features include online resources for instructors; a chapter covering global capitalism, environmental ethics, and business ethics; new material on bioethics and on stem cell and embryo research; discussion questions at the end of each chapter; and sidebars with case studies. |
| how good people make tough choices: The Paradox of Choice Barry Schwartz, 2009-10-13 Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make. |
| how good people make tough choices: High Performance Habits Brendon Burchard, 2017-09-19 THESE HABITS WILL MAKE YOU EXTRAORDINARY. Twenty years ago, author Brendon Burchard became obsessed with answering three questions: 1. Why do some individuals and teams succeed more quickly than others and sustain that success over the long term? 2. Of those who pull it off, why are some miserable and others consistently happy on their journey? 3. What motivates people to reach for higher levels of success in the first place, and what practices help them improve the most After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s leading high performance coach, Burchard found the answers. It turns out that just six deliberate habits give you the edge. Anyone can practice these habits and, when they do, extraordinary things happen in their lives, relationships, and careers. Which habits can help you achieve long-term success and vibrant well-being no matter your age, career, strengths, or personality? To become a high performer, you must seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence, and demonstrate courage. The art and science of how to do all this is what this book is about. Whether you want to get more done, lead others better, develop skill faster, or dramatically increase your sense of joy and confidence, the habits in this book will help you achieve it faster. Each of the six habits is illustrated by powerful vignettes, cutting-edge science, thought-provoking exercises, and real-world daily practices you can implement right now. If you’ve ever wanted a science-backed, heart-centered plan to living a better quality of life, it’s in your hands. Best of all, you can measure your progress. A link to a free professional assessment is included in the book. |
| how good people make tough choices: Smart Choices John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, Howard Raiffa, 2015-08 Where should I live? Is it time to get a new job? Which job candidate should I hire? What business strategy should I pursue? We spend the majority of our lives making decisions, both big and small. Yet, even though our success is largely determined by the choices that we make, very few of us are equipped with useful decision-making skills. Because of this, we often approach our choices tentatively, or even fearfully, and avoid giving them the time and thought required to put our best foot forward. In Smart Choices, John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa--experts with over 100 years of experience resolving complex decision problems--offer a proven, straightforward, and flexible roadmap for making better and more impactful decisions, and offer the tools to achieve your goals in every aspect of your life. Their step-by-step, divide-and conquer approach will teach you how to: * Evaluate your plans * Break your potential decision into its key elements * Identify the key drivers that are most relevant to your goals * Apply systematic thinking * Use the right information to make the smartest choice Smart Choices doesn’t tell you what to decide; it tells you how. As you routinely use the process, you’ll become more confident in your ability to make decisions at work and at home. And, more importantly, by applying its time-tested methods, you’ll make better decisions going forward. Be proactive. Don’t wait until a decision is forced on you--or made for you. Seek out decisions that advance your long-term goals, values, and beliefs. Take charge of your life by making Smart Choices a lifetime habit. |
| how good people make tough choices: Managing in the Gray Joseph L. Badaracco Jr., 2016-08-16 How to Resolve the Really Hard Problems Every manager makes tough calls—it comes with the job. And the hardest decisions are the “gray areas”—situations where you and your team have worked hard to find an answer, you’ve done the best analysis you can, and you still don’t know what to do. But you have to make a decision. You have to choose, commit, act, and live with the consequences and persuade others to follow your lead. Gray areas test your skills as a manager, your judgment, and even your humanity. How do you get these decisions right? In Managing in the Gray, Joseph Badaracco offers a powerful, practical, and even radical way to resolve these problems. Picking up where conventional tools of analysis leave off, this book provides tools for judgment in the form of five revealing questions. Asking yourself these five questions provides a simple yet profound way to broaden your thinking, sharpen your judgment, and develop a fresh perspective. What makes these questions so valuable is that they have truly stood the test of time—they’ve guided countless men and women, across many centuries and cultures, to resolve the hardest questions of work, responsibility, and life. You can use the five-question framework on your own or with others on your team to help you cut through complexities, understand critical trade-offs, and develop workable solutions for even the grayest issues. |
| how good people make tough choices: What We Owe the Future William MacAskill, 2022-08-16 An Instant New York Times Bestseller “This book will change your sense of how grand the sweep of human history could be, where you fit into it, and how much you could do to change it for the better. It's as simple, and as ambitious, as that.” —Ezra Klein An Oxford philosopher makes the case for “longtermism” — that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. The fate of the world is in our hands. Humanity’s written history spans only five thousand years. Our yet-unwritten future could last for millions more — or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose to do today. In What We Owe The Future, philosopher William MacAskill argues for longtermism, that idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. From this perspective, it’s not enough to reverse climate change or avert the next pandemic. We must ensure that civilization would rebound if it collapsed; counter the end of moral progress; and prepare for a planet where the smartest beings are digital, not human. If we make wise choices today, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will thrive, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world full of justice, hope and beauty. |
| how good people make tough choices: Ethical Challenges Deni Elliott, 2008-06 In a span of 81 days in 1978, Henry Rono broke four world records, committing the most ferocious assault on the track-and-field record books by a middle-distance runner in the history of the sport. This is what Henry Rono is known for. However, it is not who Henry Rono is. Henry Rono was born a poor Nandi in Kenya's Rift Valley. After an accident when he was two, doctors believed he would never again walk. This would be the first of countless obstacles Rono would have to overcome in order to pursue his two life goals: to first become the greatest runner in the world and then to become the best teacher he could be. Rono's first goal was accomplished in 1978, when he was considered not only the greatest track-and-field athlete in the world, but also by many to be the world's greatest athlete period. His second and greater goal, to become a teacher, was more difficult in coming. Once Rono became a star, coaches, agents, meet directors, and corrupt Kenyan athletic officials (whose boycotts of the 1976 and 1980 Olympics turned Rono's dreams of Olympic gold into Olympic smoke rings), wanted him to serve as their personal moneymaker, and so they did everything they could to discourage Rono's pursuit of an education and dream of teaching. The corruption and discouragement Rono encountered, as well as his alienation and exile from his homeland and family, pushed him to 20 years of alcoholism and even occasional homelessness. This is the life story of Henry Rono, whose descent from triumph to abyss, and whose subsequent ascent from abyss to triumph, are perhaps steeper than those of any track-and field athlete in history. |
| how good people make tough choices: In an Uncertain World Robert Rubin, Jacob Weisberg, 2004-09-07 Robert Rubin was sworn in as the seventieth U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in January 1995 in a brisk ceremony attended only by his wife and a few colleagues. As soon as the ceremony was over, he began an emergency meeting with President Bill Clinton on the financial crisis in Mexico. This was not only a harbinger of things to come during what would prove to be a rocky period in the global economy; it also captured the essence of Rubin himself--short on formality, quick to get into the nitty-gritty. From his early years in the storied arbitrage department at Goldman Sachs to his current position as chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup, Robert Rubin has been a major figure at the center of the American financial system. He was a key player in the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. With In an Uncertain World, Rubin offers a shrewd, keen analysis of some of the most important events in recent American history and presents a clear, consistent approach to thinking about markets and dealing with the new risks of the global economy. Rubin's fundamental philosophy is that nothing is provably certain. Probabilistic thinking has guided his career in both business and government. We see that discipline at work in meetings with President Clinton and Hillary Clinton, Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers, Newt Gingrich, Sanford Weill, and the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. We see Rubin apply it time and again while facing financial crises in Asia, Russia, and Brazil; the federal government shutdown; the rise and fall of the stock market; the challenges of the post-September 11 world; the ongoing struggle over fiscal policy; and many other momentous economic and political events. With a compelling and candid voice and a sharp eye for detail, Rubin portrays the daily life of the White House-confronting matters both mighty and mundane--as astutely as he examines the challenges that lie ahead for the nation. Part political memoir, part prescriptive economic analysis, and part personal look at business problems, In an Uncertain World is a deep examination of Washington and Wall Street by a figure who for three decades has been at the center of both worlds. |
| how good people make tough choices: Great People Decisions, why They Matter So Much, why They are So Hard, and how You Can Master Them Claudio Fernandex Araoz, 2008-09-15 Great People Decisions is an essential strategy guide for managers, executives and HR professional. This is the first book that looks at hiring and promoting great people from a business perspective. Great People Decisions is about how finding the right person is critical to the long term success of any business. The right people make the right decisions and these are the kind of people who create success. Great People Decisions will convey Fernandez-Araoz's insights about finding and hiring great people such as:· The importance of shedding all emotional biases when conducting an interview.· The information requirements that drive the search are far more important than the specific assessment techniques that are used.· The specific people involved in the appointment are also more important than the assessment techniques.· In most cases, people who have the power to make power-related decisions don t have the knowledge - and people who have the knowledge don t have the power.· The broader the search, on average, the better the candidate. |
| how good people make tough choices: Media Ethics Clifford G. Christians, Mark Fackler, Kathy Richardson, Peggy Kreshel, Robert H. Woods, 2015-07-17 Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning, Ninth Edition challenges students to think analytically about ethical situations in mass communication by using original case studies and commentaries about real-life media experiences. This market-leading text facilitates and enhances students' ethical awareness by providing a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical principles of ethical philosophies. Media Ethics introduces the Potter Box (which uses four dimensions of moral analysis: definitions, values, principles and loyalties) to provide a framework for exploring the important steps in moral reasoning and analyzing the cases that follow. Focusing on a wide spectrum of ethical issues facing media practitioners, the cases in this new Ninth Edition include the most recent issues in journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations and entertainment. |
| how good people make tough choices: The Happiness Trap Russ Harris, 2013 A guide to ACT: the revolutionary mindfulness-based program for reducing stress, overcoming fear, and finding fulfilment – now updated. International bestseller, 'The Happiness Trap', has been published in over thirty countries and twenty-two languages. NOW UPDATED. Popular ideas about happiness are misleading, inaccurate, and are directly contributing to our current epidemic of stress, anxiety and depression. And unfortunately, popular psychological approaches are making it even worse! In this easy-to-read, practical and empowering self-help book, Dr Russ Harries, reveals how millions of people are unwittingly caught in the 'The Happiness Trap', where the more they strive for happiness the more they suffer in the long term. He then provides an effective means to escape through the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), a groundbreaking new approach based on mindfulness skills. By clarifying your values and developing mindfulness (a technique for living fully in the present moment), ACT helps you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life. Mindfulness skills are easy to learn and will rapidly and effectively help you to reduce stress, enhance performance, manage emotions, improve health, increase vitality, and generally change your life for the better. The book provides scientifically proven techniques to: reduce stress and worry; rise above fear, doubt and insecurity; handle painful thoughts and feelings far more effectively; break self-defeating habits; improve performance and find fulfilment in your work; build more satisfying relationships; and, create a rich, full and meaningful life. |
| how good people make tough choices: The Art of Strategic Decision-Making Peter Hollins, 2021-05-16 verwhelmed and paralyzed by your choices? Learn how to get it right the first time - improve your analysis, judgment, and intuition. Unfortunately, you can't just rely on your gut instinct or hunch when you make decisions. There's a science to improving your critical thinking, weighing pros and cons, and avoiding the traps that take you down the wrong path. Make smart decisions by catching your brain's built-in flaws. The Art of Strategic Decision-Making will teach you to seize control of your life and make sure your decisions aren't making you. This book cites years of research and scientific studies about what constitutes a great decision and the factors that will inevitably lead you there. It is an in-depth look at human nature and psychology and why we make decisions in the way we do - for better or for worse. This book is packed with theory, but it is all practical and actionable. Use these mental models and pieces of analysis on your decisions TODAY. Think more quickly and more thoroughly - at the same time. Peter Hollins has studied psychology and the human condition for over a dozen years. This book contains tactics pulled from his personal experience, as well as some of the most famous studies in decision theory and social psychology to help you make snap decisions. Beat analysis paralysis and eliminate indecision. -Learn your subconscious motivations, needs, and desires that hijack your brain. -Discover the surprising causes and cures for decision fatigue. -Over 10 of the most dangerous cognitive biases and decision traps. -How to make your pros and cons lists incredibly useful and illuminating. -The 6 Hats Method of intelligent decisions and how you can inhabit different perspectives. -The WRAP method of planning for failure in decisions. -How to think outside the box and creatively solve problems. |
| how good people make tough choices: Drive Daniel H. Pink, 2011-04-05 The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live. |
| how good people make tough choices: 10-10-10 Suzy Welch, 2009-04-20 Today, the world offers us more options than ever before, but it also forces us to juggle more priorities, to make more choices, and to make them faster. The result: a crisis of doing too much, or not enough, and making our decisions based on impulse, stress or guilt. In 10-10-10Suzy Welch offers an exciting, effective strategy that will help you make the right decision in any situation, at work or at home; with colleagues, family or friends. The rule is deceptively simple: when faced with a decision, consider what the consequences and outcomes of your various options would be in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years. But the results are extraordinary. Using the framework of 10-10-10will allow you to think through your decisions and to match them with the expectations and values you hold dearest. Most importantly, it allows you to chart a path in the direction you want, and to head confidently towards it with focus, balance, and joy. |
| how good people make tough choices: Playing to Win Alan G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin, 2013 Explains how companies must pinpoint business strategies to a few critically important choices, identifying common blunders while outlining simple exercises and questions that can guide day-to-day and long-term decisions. |
| how good people make tough choices: Atomic Habits (Tamil) James Clear, 2023-07-14 நீங்கள் உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையை மாற்ற விரும்பினால், நீங்கள் பிரம்மாண்டமாக சிந்திக்க வேண்டும் என்று மக்கள் நினைக்கின்றனர். ஆனால், பழக்கங்களைப் பற்றி விரிவாக ஆய்வு செய்து அதில் உலகப் புகழ்பெற்ற நிபுணர்களில் ஒருவராகத் திகழுகின்ற ஜேம்ஸ் கிளியர் அதற்கு வேறொரு வழியைக் கண்டுபிடித்துள்ளார். தினமும் காலையில் ஐந்து நிமிடங்கள் முன்னதாகவே எழுந்திருத்தல், ஒரு பதினைந்து நிமிடங்கள் மெதுவோட்டத்தில் ஈடுபடுதல், கூடுதலாக ஒரு பக்கம் படித்தல் போன்ற நூற்றுக்கணக்கான சிறிய தீர்மானங்களின் கூட்டு விளைவிலிருந்துதான் உண்மையான மாற்றம் வருகிறது என்று அவர் கூறுகிறார்.<br>இந்தக் கடுகளவு மாற்றங்கள் எப்படி உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையைப் பெரிதும் மாற்றக்கூடிய விளைவுகளாக உருவெடுக்கின்றன என்பதை ஜேம்ஸ் இப்புத்தகத்தில் தெளிவாக வெளிப்படுத்துகிறார். அதற்கு அறிவியற்பூர்வமான விளக்கங்களையும் அவர் கொடுக்கிறார். ஒலிம்பிக்கில் தங்கப் பதக்கம் வென்றவர்கள், முன்னணி நிறுவனத் தலைவர்கள், புகழ்பெற்ற அறிவியலறிஞர்கள் ஆகியோரைப் பற்றிய உத்வேகமூட்டும் கதைகளைப் பயன்படுத்தி அவர் தன்னுடைய கோட்பாடுகளை விளக்கும் விதம் சுவாரசியமூட்டுவதாக இருக்கிறது.<br>இச்சிறு மாற்றங்கள் உங்கள் தொழில்வாழ்க்கையின்மீதும் உங்கள் உறவுகளின்மீதும் உங்கள் தனிப்பட்ட வாழ்வின்மீதும் அளப்பரிய தாக்கம் ஏற்படுத்தி அவற்றைப் பரிபூரணமாக மாற்றும் என்பது உறுதி. |
| how good people make tough choices: A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara, 2016-01-26 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise. |
| how good people make tough choices: Decision Time Laurence Alison, Neil Shortland, 2021-10-07 Should I change careers? Is it time to end my relationship? Can I move halfway across the world? We have to make choices everyday, big and small, but it's the life-changing ones that often cause us to freeze or react too quickly, without thinking. What can we do differently? Laurence Alison and Neil Shortland have spent over 20 years helping soldiers, police officers, doctors and other professionals in high-stakes environments make tough decisions when lives are on the line. In Decision Time, they show us how those same decision-making techniques apply to everyday life, whether that's deciding to take a new job or change career later in life, end a relationship, move across the world or declaring your undying love for your best friend. With tips, studies, interviews and observations from their training with police officers together with role-play scenarios for you to try, this book will help you identify and fight off the common enemies of good decision-making - inertia, procrastination and indecision - and empower you to make the choices that matter the most. Highly accessible and interactive, Decision Time will guide you through each step of the decision-making process so next time you a find yourself at the crossroads, you'll be able to make your way with confidence. |
| how good people make tough choices: The Righteous Mind Jonathan Haidt, 2013-02-12 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The acclaimed social psychologist challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alike—a “landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself” (The New York Times Book Review). Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind. |
| how good people make tough choices: TakingPoint Brent Gleeson, 2018-02-27 Decorated Navy SEAL, successful businessman and world-renowned speaker Brent Gleeson shares his revolutionary approach to navigating and leading change in the workplace—with a foreword by #1 New York Times bestselling author Mark Owen. Inspired by his time as a Navy SEAL and building award-winning organizations in the business world, Brent Gleeson has created a powerful roadmap for today’s existing and emerging business leaders and managers to improve their ability to successfully navigate organizational change. Over the past ten years since leaving the SEAL Teams, Gleeson has become a well-respected thought leader and expert in business transformation. He has spoken to and consulted with hundreds of organizations across the globe and inspired thousands of business leaders through his highly insightful philosophies on leadership, culture and building high-performance teams that achieve winning results. In TakingPoint, Gleeson shares his ten-step program that he has implemented in his own companies and for his high-profile clients—giving leaders and managers actionable insights and a framework for successful execution. TakingPoint brilliantly captures the structures, behaviors and mindsets required to build successful twenty-first century organizations. With a strong emphasis on communication, culture, engagement, accountability, trust, and resiliency, Gleeson’s methods have helped hundreds of companies around the world transform the way they think about change, and can help yours do the same. For the last five years, Gleeson has shared his philosophies through his weekly columns on Forbes and Inc. And now, for the first time ever, they are captured in this entertaining and highly prescriptive book. Steps include: -Culture: The Single Most Important Enabler -Trust: Fueling the Change Engine -Accountability: Ownership at All Levels -Mindset: Belief in the Mission -Preparation: Gathering Intelligence and Planning the Mission -Transmission: Communicating the Vision -Inclusion: The Power of Participation and Acceptance -Fatigue: Managing Fear and Staying Energized -Discipline: Focus and Follow-Through -Resiliency: The Path of Lasting Change Never has change been more consistent and disruptive as it is now. Business leaders and managers at all levels can’t just react to change. They have to lead change. They have to take point. |
