Making a choice today that will effect every single day for the next fifty years has a certain weight to it. Especially when we consciously have a choice in these moments.
How do you frame and react to these questions?
Examples of 50 year decisions
- A child, more like a 22 year decision and then a lifetime of care
- Life saving drugs that you must take daily
- but what else …
I debated this hard over the past few months and it is a challenging question. When you are presented with a 50 year decision you are choosing a way of life. We don’t know how your body or the world will fare over this period, but WE ARE COMMITTED to persevere forward. That commitment to the decision at hand is what makes these types of decisions hard and a bit disabling.
I have to make such a decision tomorrow. I have to decide on something that will impact me everyday moving forward. The science isn’t centuries old or proven across giant test groups. The science is just enough tested to date. My decision — select to adopt this medicine and live at X quality of life, or don’t and well don’t.
I could hope my situation changes, but hope isn’t a plan. I have taken the past two years to try and solve this health riddle, and now it seems I just have something broken inside that needs to be fixed.
Is that a weakness or make me less human, less a man, less a father, less a good person?
Framing life making decisions
Why not say, framing life changing decisions? It’s an important distinction as change implies you have done something wrong to date. That prior decisions of love, joy, and exploration are somehow a waste of time. They aren’t and cannot be seen that way — they are the stepping blocks that got you here. Your experiences and discovery along the way makes you uniquely qualified today and in the future for the next moment.
Each and every moment is best viewed as a discovery.
So to frame such life making decisions it demands a simple lens that fundamentally personal. Science, friends, and others can provide input — but in the end, you are you and nobody else will live your life. It is your responsibility and every choice are yours to bear.
Do what you love, everyday
Passionately and without hesitation. Seek out, grow, expand your love in these areas. Soak your soul in this joy. You’ll not only succeed, but you’ll be happy. The true definition of a life of success.
Reflect and create a list of what you would love to do everyday. This isn’t with whom or where you’d love to do it, but what is the process and mechanics of what you love! If you love taking photographs, then you can grow in this area. If you love, as I do, to create and build, then go ahead and do that! Somethings I create are small time commitments, a few days… while others are months or years in the making. Each provides me the same level of joy, but perhaps some with more severe swings of stress and occasional higher cost with losses.
But .. in the end to make these big decisions we must make choices based on what we love. Chose the job today; the book today; the painting today, the love of your life today. You may change in the future, but that is the fun part of living and loving.
Growing isn’t giving up
Change to continue embracing joy. Change isn’t giving up; growth isn’t giving up, NOT changing or choosing to grow, is giving up.
Don’t try to control the destination
A key tip to being successful and happy is to not be singularly focused on a single destination. Don’t seek to be a CEO; have 1 million followers; be a rockstar, etc… These can be achieved of course, but then what? What did you give up to hit that destination. Did you sell your creative soul to be an office rat to climb the ladder, only to begin playing guitar in bars and with friends at 50?
The definition of success changes and is different for everyone! Thus electing and embracing the mechanics and journey are the path with happiness. If you enjoy the process day in and day out, you won. YES we all need big hairy audacious goals, and perhaps that is achieving a milestone in your area of passion — win the Olympics. But I would dare say, that journey began with a love for the sport and then morphed into bigger fields of competition that just happens to be the Olympics. Being the CEO can be done with a simple LLC filing, but that isn’t what is the goal. The goal for those who wish to be entrepreneurs is to build something / change something in the world with a culture they have designed to bring to the world with a team that far extends their own lifetime capacity. THAT is what being the boss or CEO is all about … does that sound like something you can do without the title, at different scales, and across different platforms — absolutely.
Impact, is more possible today with the internet and the existing platforms. Think beyond labels and historic “success points”, and build your path forward. Acting like a treasure hunter vs a robot with preprogrammed goals will lead to far greater impact and happiness.
My decision on life
I must decide tomorrow whether to start taking the medicine. As our bodies are designed, once you take a medicine to supplement an organs function your organ will say peace out. It is highly unlikely to go off the medicine.
To me, I weighed the positive and negatives. I have taken every effort holistically and physically to make improvements. The science tests all show the same thing — take the medicine. Thus if it isn’t science or logic, why hesitate.
Ego. Ego is a powerful thing. It can power us through tough challenge but also be a stubborn angel on our shoulder delaying good choices. Analysis through paralysis is the point when you know the answer, and yet hesitate.
- Kiss the girl
- Build the business
- Send the note
- Invite your friends out
- Call your mom
Cause no harm
Making a choice is simple when we break it down to chasing our passions and living in joy. This is balanced out when we match it to causing no harm. You see, what you are planning on starting today CAN have great impact in the world. It may fail miserably as intended, but in 10 years proven the idea / innovation / experience that unlocks an entirely new path forward.
The 50 year decision applies to those in which we are pot committed for the that entire period. Jobs, homes, languages, diets, friends, and beyond are all NOT 50 year decisions. They are points in time. You can start an entire new career today. You can live in a different city, weekly / monthly if you so chose. You can learn new languages, change diets, and beyond.
Embrace the freedom of choice you have in life — see this as GROWTH and choose it, love it, cherish it. Never cut off your freedom from fear and doubt. There is no one judging you that matters, only your opinion matters ultimately.
Your family and customers will be supremely glad to work with someone who loves their work and is chasing their passions. I promise you, we will feed off your energy. We are all on a journey of stepping stones of choices, and believe me, we admire those who share and make these choices.
You making choices, gives us permission and strength to do the same.
Choose joy and life.
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About Me
I am a father, study of human behavior, strategist, cybersecurity executive, and a coach and mentor on a journey to give more than I receive everyday. I lead teams globally, build products, and daily an executive for a leading company where I serve the largest companies in the world using the largest cloud deployments in the world impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries. I provide these publications and content through my media agency to deliver insights and advantages. Mindset, mental strength, mentorship, personal improvement, health, fitness, and humanist ideas are drawn from personal research and practice. Everything read and heard is my original works and my own perspective. All rights reserved for noted authors and sources. I produce research and strategy, as well as provide advisory services that include inquiries, briefings, consulting projects, and presentations on published findings as well as bespoke speaking engagements where I often keynote at conferences, seminars, and roundtables annually.