How can we make good decisions? It is something that we obsess with and understandably so! We always want to make the best choice, especially when it comes to big things in life.
In primary school, big decisions were made between ice cream or cake. Playstation vs Xbox vs Nintendo. In high school, it was about which books to carry in your school bag/wheelie bag, or which sport to play. As we progress, we think about subject selection for Years 11 and 12.
This subject selection is hard and daunting because there is a “longer term” aspect to it as you have to balance between how many subjects to take, what university courses you might want to do and whether you might like it or not (though we probably haven’t the slightest idea!)
This is excluding the fact that in high school we worry about drama with friends, teachers and family and the list goes on. How do we know if our choices are good? We don’t, not yet at least! As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20.
Studying good decisions
Marcus Buckingham is a British researcher and speaker who advocates an approach to research that in order to understand good habits, behaviours or success, one needs to study real life success cases and not failures. For example, to be an excellent musician, one needs to study the professionals and not the newbies. He argues that excellence has its own pattern and we cannot infer it from studying failure.
If we take this and apply it to the question of how can we be making good decisions, we should study good decisions that have been made by others in the past as well as good decisions that have been made in the Bible. This will help provide us with a framework which we can use to aid us in making decisions in life.
Biblical examples and their stories
A good shortcut to get a nice list of people in history who have made good decisions is to refer to Hebrews chapter 11. Here the author lists people in the Bible who exercised faith in God and made great decisions when faced with difficult decisions and were commended for it.
This chapter emphasises that each person had confidence in what we as Christians hope for and assurance about the unseen and that we should keep our eyes “fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith… so that you (we) will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 to 3).
When we read through and study each person mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, we find a pattern of:
- Trust in God and His promises
- Prayerful decision making
- Bold action
- Putting God’s priorities and principles over their own
It highlights that whatever principles, values and priorities we follow will inform and affect the decisions we make in our life. This means we need to make sure we are in relationship and putting our trust in God first! It is only once we have that foundation, can we then begin to think about the decisions we are facing such as what should I study after finishing school and what career/job should I go for.
Example: What should I study/do after finishing school?
This is a big question that everyone ponders. We can feel lost or that the weight of the world is on our shoulders. It is understandable and normal because we do not want to make costly mistakes.
We need to start first with the principles by which we choose to live our life. That means opening up our Bible and studying it to understand what we need to consider and what is the big picture behind God’s intention for work. Hint: to serve God, pay for our needs and contribute to society.
When it then comes to prioritisation, we can apply frameworks to help us process our thoughts. One that I like to adapt and use is for us to consider our:
- Character
- Competency
- Conviction (passion)
- Need
We probably grew up being taught to follow our dreams and follow our passion and we love those stories where people do (such as our famous sports stars). What we are missing though are other dimensions of whether our personality suits it, whether we are good at it or can be good at it, and whether there is a need for it (because that’s ultimately how you get paid).
We need to remember the priority as well; that life is not all about work and there is a bigger picture of telling the world about God to those who do not yet know him and how work serves to help fund, connect and reach out to people in our local communities, friends and families. We can be ambitious but need to make sure it’s for God.
Looking at famous local celebrities such as Eddie Woo (WooTube) and when we read or listen to his interviews, we can see how he, as a Christian is serving his local community, putting God first and fulfilling a need which matches his character, conviction and competence.
As we reflect on our own life and decisions we are making, let us remember the big picture of God’s big story and where we fit in it. We should prayerfully consider our choices based on the principles and priorities of God which He tells us through the Bible.
Brandon Tsang is a Sydney-based writer currently working in IT. He studied Marketing and Economics at UNSW and loves to spend his spare time hiking, playing volleyball or watching Netflix.
Brandon Tsang’s previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/brandon-tsang.html