Three ‘ways of deciding’ tend to show up in the results of any assessment. Accidental Decisions: “I don’t know how it happened, it just did.” If you kept track of the number of decisions you make during an ordinary day, the large number would surprise you. We make decisions all the time – some incidental and rather unimportant – others monumental in their implications. The former kind comes in herds – lots of them – and we make them without thinking much about either the implications or the facts surrounding them. We just decide – and, in deciding, we roll the dice. These random decisions tend to lead us towards other unanticipated – accidental – decisions. We make them often in the same way that we made the decisions that lead us to them – casually and without a lot of thought. These gently trends tend to bring us to big decisions unawares of their significance and, before we know, we have chosen. Inertia Decides: “I’m happy with the way my life is.” Inertia comes in lots of forms. Technically, inertia does not mean staying on one place but staying in one state. An ocean liner under steam has inertia – it moves in the same direction and is difficult to stop or turn. A rock has inertia – it sits on the ground and is heavy to lift. The antidote to inertia is change and it is the aversion to change that preserves it. Some people see inertia as ‘familiar’ or ‘comfortable’. For them, life continuing pretty much as it has been makes a lot of sense. Habits are the most noticeable evidence of this tendency towards inertia. Habits tend to keep us within narrow channels. We make decisions based on them and, in the end, nothing much changes. The problem is that life is change and change means breaking inertia and moving on to another way of living. Reacting Decides: “I just couldn’t stand being in the same room with him.” Reactions can be aversions or attractions – and many things in between. We sometimes react out of our current state of mind – loneliness, hunger, greed, melancholy and more – and that reactivity more than the facts of the decision we face, makes the decision for us. One of my life-coaching clients had an aversion to large, open rooms that were noisy and crowded. He adversaries actually figured this out and maneuvered him into those conditions whenever possible. In his ‘reactive state’ he was capable of making al sorts of mistakes – and sometime did. The point is that reactive states can drive your decision process and cause you to make choices that are not in your best interest.