Decision Making and the Will of God

A few thought from Dr. Ben Carson's book: 

 TAKE THE RISK: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk.

Best/Worst Analysis   

B/WA Formula

 Notes taken from the book by Ben Carson

I would summarize one of the most important insights I took from the book as “How to make decisions without leaving God out of the equation!'

Risk Analysis Process

You can print this and use as a template for decision making.

Questions to ask when making a decision: 

What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?

What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do it?

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The rest of this post are My comments on his 4 questions.

Ask these questions in light of the following:

Outcomes may change over time because of changing conditions!

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

How?

Why?

Answering these familiar queries in the context of the four basic Best/Worst Analysis questions will sharpen the focus and refine the accuracy of any risk analysis process

WHERE

Where are you going? (Your goals)

Where are you now? (Your skills, your abilities, your thinking, and your attitudes)

Where will you start? (Your preparation)

WHEN

Often the timing of a Best/Worst Analysis affects our conclusion.

Always do a B/WA again whenever you think something has changed significantly: a year later, at a different point in life, or maybe after pondering some of these who, what, when,  how, and why considerations. Times change. So do circumstances. Sometimes those changes will affect your Best/Worst Analysis, modifying your thinking-maybe even reversing your decision.

HOW

You don’t have to address who, what, where, when, how, and why in any particular order.  They may need to be viewed simultaneously because they sometimes complement each other or need to be combined.

Sometimes answering one of the (how or?) conclusions may change your risk-analysis equation entirely.

WHY

It is impossible to do an effective B/WA without considering why. You need to examine, and often re examine, your reasoning in light of your motives, which involve your personal values.  Your values must be weighed carefully against you’re analyses and conclusions.  

Some Truths About RISK

1.                  Everything is Risky

2.                  The more we know, the more we worry.

3.                  A Lot of Risks Aren’t Worth the Worry.

4.                  We Can’t Eliminate All Risk

5.                  Minimizing Risk Is Often the Best We Can Do.

6.                  Each of Us Has to Decide What the Acceptable Risks Are

7.                  Not All Risks Are Bad

8.                  We Are All Going to Die of Something Eventually

 

Risk Number One-Thinking in New Ways

Risk Number Two-Weighing the Alternatives

Risk Number Three-Making Your Own Decision

Even when the Best/Worse Analysis doesn’t result in a particularly positive outcome, you are unlikely to have a worse outcome because you did the analysis, and what a B/WA does guarantee is that you consider the various possibilities in a reasonable, logical manner before making any uncertain or risky decision. That has to improve the odds that you come up with a happy solution-or at least with a reasonable and defensible course of action that will minimize the risk of regrets.

Need to weigh risks in light of my beliefs and my values. My obligations to others should be greater than any obligations to myself.

Since I believe God’s guidance and provision has brought me to this point, I should ask Him to open the doors He wants me to walk through and to give me wisdom in how to proceed.

Importance of using my talents and not allow minor interferences to derail my mission if life.

Creativity requires risk, so does exploration and innovation. Anyone who thinks outside the box is taking a risk.

In doing this risk analysis, one needs to consider the implications of any decision, not just for one’s self but for other people. How will my decision impact others?

Taking Us Out of the Middle

Once we manage to remove our egos from the equation, many of the most commonplace and unsettling personal risks we face in life become a lot less personal and no longer seem to be much of a risk after all.  That discovery frees us up to better concentrate on dealing with the real risks presented by truly important issues.

A few added thoughts: "Destiny is not a mystery. For better or worse, your destiny is the result of your daily decisions and defining decisions."  Mark Batterson. The Circle Maker.

"Along with daily decisions, there are defining decisions. We only make a few defining decisions in life, and then we spend the rest of our lives managing them." Mark Batterson. The Circle Maker. 

Something to pray about!