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Excerpt #2 from new book
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Backtracking some, while I was busily applying my choice-making process to all aspects of my life, I got a strong urge to write a novel. (This occurred roughly five years before I wrote God is a Woman: Dating Disasters.) I used my decision-making system to set myself up so I could take a year off from work to write said novel (and admittedly party and travel a little). The manuscript’s first draft, which was awful, forced me to answer a question that I hadn’t really thought about much, previously. One of the main characters was an alien and the human protagonist spent a lot of time with him. I needed this alien character to be ruthless, yet extremely logical. The protagonist kept asking him, “What is the meaning of life?”
I feared I had dug myself quite the hole. This is a question nearly everybody asks and few, if any, answer. Experts and most of the population share an erroneous answer, which we’ll discuss in the first chapter. To date, the best answer I had heard came in the movie City Slickers, when the character Curly (I think that was his name) told Billy Crystal’s character, “Life is about one thing,” while raising his index finger. He added, “You have to figure out what that one thing is for yourself;” or something to that effect. (Cut me some slack; I haven’t seen the film in years.)
It was—and still is—a great answer; however, I needed something applicable to everyone, not just a general philosophy. My alien needed to provide this answer to my protagonist. After carefully examining and contemplating every aspect of a collage of lives, the solution finally hit me. My alien had his answer. Every time the protagonist asked him for the meaning of life, the alien simply indicated an apple and banana. He told the protagonist, “Choose.” The alien then ate whichever fruit wasn’t chosen. Eventually, the protagonist got it and realized the meaning of life.
I became exposed to self-help because I have a sister who used to continually buy the latest hot book on the topic. One month she would pick up a book on how to start a multi-million dollar business; another, she would buy a book on finding Mr. Right. It never ended. Unfortunately, she was never able to really move forward with any of the advice, mostly because few of the books she purchased taught an implementation process; rather, they were inundated with philosophies. “Thought determines what you want; action determines what you get.” (She regurgitated that verbatim.) This is an astute, succinct observation and very true. Personally, I love this statement; however, how do you act? What steps should you take? That’s the advice my sister needed, which she never received.
Other phrases she quoted include, “You get what you desire;” “You get what you believe;” “Decision determines destiny;” and, “You get what you choose.” (How do you choose, though?) I googled these phrases to give proper credit to the sources, only to learn there are numerous sources—many life coaches and self-help authors include these quotes in their repertoire. Armed with lots of philosophy but little definitive processes, my sister has failed to find direction and make good decisions. Many friends, colleagues, bosses, and people I’ve met share the same dilemma and seek a solution.
Philosophies for living a successful life are great and certainly help toward that end, but you still have to implement them. There is little guidance for doing such. Arming someone with just philosophy is like giving a soldier a loaded rifle and telling him, “Go.” Go? Where? Who’s the enemy? What tactic I should implement? What’s my goal on this mission? What tools of measurement am I using to determine success—do I need to kill a key foe, capture a ridge, stop a convoy . . . ? In short, what the hell am I doing? Giving someone a loaded rifle does not produce a soldier. Likewise, giving someone an insightful philosophy does not produce a good decision-maker. “You get what you want?” What about the people who don’t know what they want? (There are many.) They need a process just for determining what it is they want.
Combining the above interests and observations, I found myself writing this book. The aforementioned are three of the four reasons I wrote Choice – the Meaning of Life. The fourth, and perhaps most important reason, will be covered later.
What will you find in this book? Along with some solid, original philosophies about life, you’ll find a complete, effective system to make good choices. You’ll find that good choices lead to more and better choices, while bad choices lead to fewer and worse choices. You’ll find analysis of how bad choices and poor decision-making processes—or the lack of decision-making processes—combine to create tough economic times and society problems. We’ll identify inhibitors to making good choices and learn how to eliminate them. We’ll talk about how both society and individuals have become irresponsible for their choices and look at the detrimental impacts. We’ll identify enablers of good choice. I’ll show you a one-page diagram that can be used to replace action plans, pro and con lists, tics and tacs, and other templates used to currently make decisions. We’ll cover a variety of topics, applying the system as we go along to both illustrate its usage and demonstrate its effectiveness.
More than ever individuals, businesses, schools, governments, and society need a system for making good choices. I offer the contents within as an effort to do some of my part and to share whatever knowledge and experiences that help.
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