Early in my career, I noticed how much time, energy, and effort I put into projects at work, but I realized I wasn’t applying the same focus to my personal life. I found this interesting, given that many of the choices in my personal life would have a more lasting impact than some of the choices I was making at work. I knew I needed to come up with how I would make better personal decisions.
Have you ever asked yourself why we apply less rigor to personal decisions than to professional ones, despite the higher stakes? We may not get paid for decisions in our personal lives, but a bad decision can cost us a lot of time and/or money. And a series of bad decisions can take a lifetime to recover from.
Before we explore this idea, let’s establish that making choices without due diligence is equivalent to a coin toss. Most of us wouldn’t accept a service provider’s recommendation based on nothing more than a coin toss. However, when life presents us with the stress of competing priorities, we find ourselves putting minimal time, energy, and effort into our personal choices.
We deserve better than a coin toss; we owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to apply the appropriate level of diligence to the decisions that matter most. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting we need a formal decision-making process or a decision matrix for every choice in our personal lives. But we do need to make sure we have evaluated all our options and that the choice we’re making aligns with our life goals. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you wouldn’t randomly pick a meal because a random meal could provide too many calories. Instead, you would make an informed choice and select a low-calorie meal.
Just as business decisions should align with business goals, our personal choices should align with our personal goals. For example, if we have a savings goal, we would filter our spending through the needs, wants, and desires process before making a purchase.
With the exception of random luck, it’s impossible to achieve our personal goals without making personal choices that align with those goals.
There are several areas of our personal lives that have a compounding effect on all dimensions of our lives and therefore warrant significant consideration before making a choice.
The Big-Four Personal Decision Domains.
These domains must be mastered because their compounding effects have such a significant impact on the other facets of your life.
Residence.
The cost of where we live is the single most expensive thing we spend money on. In addition, there are second- and third-order effects associated with where you live, whether you rent or buy, and how much you spend, that can have a lasting impact on so many other facets of your life. Where you live can affect where you work, where your kids go to school, and so many other elements of your life.
Transportation.
Over the past several years, the total cost of vehicle ownership has increased to the point that we need to seriously consider whether to own a vehicle and, if so, what type. At one point in my life, I was considering buying one of two vehicles. I did the math on the fuel mileage difference between the two options and found that the difference was worth two months of car payments. I quickly chose the model with the better fuel mileage.
Education.
Education, whether college, technical, or self-taught, will play a role in a person achieving their personal and professional goals. I met a gentleman who took a couple of software engineering classes at the local community college. That, along with a couple of years of passion and drive, led him to Department of the Army-level recognition for an algorithm that nobody else had considered.
Habits and Hobbies.
Our habits and hobbies may at times feel inconsequential, but over time they can have a real and lasting impact on our lives. For example, smoking can lead to cancer, whereas running can help us get healthier.
It’s been my experience that making personal choices is more of a balancing act than a formal decision-making process. For example, the place where I worked wasn’t near the school I wanted the kids to attend, or necessarily close to our family’s choice of recreational activities. That said, trying to find a home that checked all the boxes was never easy; it was always a balancing act. Prioritizing my goals helped me balance life’s competing priorities more effectively. Prioritization became my process for how I was going to make better personal decisions.
In my opinion, one of the last and most important elements of personal decision-making is bouncing your thoughts and ideas off a trusted mentor. It could be a parent, friend, boss, etc. The idea is to find someone who has demonstrated success in an area you’re considering and get their perspective on things, because experience is priceless and helps us become aware of elements we may not have considered.
RuReady Framework Connection:
This article is part of the Decision Science and Critical Thinking series within the RuReady Adult Readiness Framework.
The series connects Knowledge (Know), understanding the principles, with Skills (Do), applying them in practice. Together, these elements help adults evaluate information, recognize assumptions and biases, assess uncertainty and risk, and make more informed decisions in personal, professional, and leadership contexts.
Explore the complete series:
Knowledge (UK05): Decision Science and Critical Thinking
Skill (US05): How to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure
Skill (US05): How to Make Better Personal Decisions
If you enjoyed this series, explore the broader RuReady Adult Readiness Framework:
Preface: A Field Manual for Adult Life
Chapter 1: Why Do We Do What We Do?
Chapter 2: An Exploration of the RuReady Framework
Chapter 3: Life Skills for the Personal Domain
Chapter 4: Career Skills for the Professional Domain
Chapter 5: Leadership Skills for Every Level
Before moving on, feel free to use the checklist below to assess your readiness level.
Please feel free to share your own experiences and lessons learned in the comment box below.
Your shared thoughts may help someone else going through a similar experience.
Thank you.
Readiness Review Checklist
Each item below is worth either one or two points. Score yourself honestly; give yourself a point only if you can answer yes with confidence, not just in theory.
2.0 _____: Have you thought about how you make personal choices and decisions? Having a process that suits you helps you make decisions faster and with more confidence.
1.0 _____: Do you ensure the decisions you make are aligned with your personal goals? It’s impossible to achieve your goal if the decisions you’re making are counter to your goals.
1.0 _____: Do you have a mentor who you can use to help you consider all the variables when deciding? Having someone to bounce ideas off can be an invaluable resource.
_____: Assessment Grade
4 = A · 3 = B · 2 = C · 1 or 0 = D
Wherever you land, this is your starting point, not your ceiling.
Stay Ready, My Friends.
Useful Resources:
RuReady Resources:
RuReady Better Decision-Making Field Kit. If you want to work through a decision of your own, the Field Kit provides reusable questions and worksheets for examining your options, assumptions, risks, and next steps.
Amazon Books:
The Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) for Civilian Business Leaders, by Griffin Gorge Associates. I’ve read this book and found it particularly useful for understanding how the Army’s structured planning process can be adapted to business decisions. If the MDMP section of this article caught your interest, this is a place to explore that connection in more depth.
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this document is informational only and does not constitute professional advice or recommendation.
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