Quote-A-Day: Day 193

The power of a #decision extends way beyond making it. Your #reflection on it is a powerhouse of #learning. #QuoteADay #Day193 #edchat #edu

When we make a decision, there may often be a feeling of finality to it.  But, that feeling of finality is actually misplaced.

The power of a decision doesn't exist with the making of it.  Instead, the true power of a decision is in the reflection we do long afterward.

Often, we take most of our thinking time to decide how we're going to make decisions.  We question, "Is this the right way to proceed?"  "Have I collected all the data that I need to?"  "Will this decision benefit the greatest number of stakeholders in the community?"

These are all important and necessary questions to ask.

However, it is common for our deep thinking about a decision to end after we've made it.  After all, the decision is made, we can't go back in time, and there are now other decisions that need to be made.

Of course, we stand to gain the most learning from a decision after we contemplate it deeply.  We can look back at various points (a day, a week, a month, a year), and ask ourselves whether the decision had the impact we expected at that time period.

Creating a decision matrix, where we map out the intended effects ahead of time, and then input what actually happened after the fact, is a great way to help ourselves reflect on what we imagined, and what reality actually had to show.

We can then ask ourselves a very important question, "If presented with the situation again in the future, would we make the same decision, and why?"

This question has deep learning implications for us, as it allows us to gauge our decision-making with the help of time.  And, just as importantly, it often provides us with new-found perspective, perspective we could not have gained had we not deeply reflected after the fact.