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A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P TWE LVE : CHO ICE PO INT
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
3
IN THIS LESSON:
• The Elements of Choice• 8 Steps For Making a Decision
To live is to choose. But tochoose well, you must know whoyou are and what you stand for,where you want to go and whyyou want to get there.
“
”Kofi Annan
Here we are at the pivotal Step 12: The Choice Point.
Most of us have been trained to make our choices based on inappropriate criteria, i.e. we often make
decisions for the wrong reasons – leading us to the very circumstances, results and experiences we were
trying to avoid.
It can be very easy to believe that life just isn’t meant to work out the way we intended, or that something
fundamental is wrong with us, the world, or the ‘cards we were dealt’ in this life.
But the more accurate reality is that there’s nothing wrong with you, your life, the world or anything else...
that cannot be transformed. You just need to use the right tools, and...
The choices you make are those tools.
Change the way you make your choices, and the life created out of your choices will
also shift and transform—for the better.
In this lesson you’ll learn the elements of choice, which are the criteria you want to focus on when making
decisions both large and small. We’ll also include useful steps for harnessing choice points to leap into new
patterns that will deliver you to your preferred destiny.
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P TWE LVE : CHO ICE PO INT
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
5
Chances are you’ve been taught decision making
as a form of problem solving. Though we use the
power of choice every day to address and solve
problems, reducing choice to this function alone
keeps us short-sighted, and we end up using a set
of criteria that is not always appropriate for
long-term happiness and success.
Here at Choice Point, we see choices as powerful
actions on a physical and energetic level that direct
your life similar to the way a pilot’s minute shifts
direct his plane. As we mentioned in Lesson 10, you
must zig zag to your destiny just as a pilot must zig
zag his plane in order to reach his destination.
With this expanded view of choice, you can see
that every decision you make can be a minute
course-correction to keep you on the path you’ve
chosen.
Yet your choices can also derail you, leading you to
zag far off course. Or—far more likely—a choice
can keep you from course-correcting at all, and
though you move in a stick-straight line, you arrive
far off course from your destination because outer
forces have buffeted you away from your path
(much like wind, weather and the physics of flight
that will always shift a plane off course until the pilot
course-corrects).
The outer forces we face are the larger patterns
and cycles, such as the economy, the seasons,
planetary and cosmic shifts, and also the social
patterns communities and even individuals are in:
value patterns, religious patterns, emotional
patterns and so forth.
In fact, just consider your most difficult and
confusing decisions over the past year...
How many of them involved the emotional well
being, values or preferences of someone you cared
about or reported to? In other words how many of
those difficult decisions would impact others in ways
that mattered to or concerned you?
Lack of clarity in our decisions is usually a function of
someone else’s energy, emotions and needs
overwhelming our own psyche, preventing us from
seeing what we want clearly.
Basically we fear the consequences of our decisions
on others and who we will become in their eyes
once we make our choice.
So if a choice is far greater than a way to solve
problems, what are the elements of choice we
should keep in mind?
THE E L EMENTS OF CHO ICE
Earth HourAlice Popkorn
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P TWE LVE : CHO ICE PO INT
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
6
THERE ARE 8 BASIC STEPS FORMAKING A DECISION:
1. Clearly define your goal and the outcome you
want to experience.
When making an important decision (and even
smaller decisions such as what to eat, how to dress
for work, and how you spend your free time), it helps
to look at both your long-term goal for that aspect
of your life and the immediate outcome you want
to experience.
This can be more challenging than it first appears
because we often have an immediate desired
outcome that differs from our long-term goal. For
example we’re all familiar with attempts to get in
shape or to break a bad habit. The long-term goal
is to reach a certain level of fitness/weight for
example, yet the immediate outcome you may
want to experience is the flavor of that delicious
molten lava cake... or just one day away from the
punishing workout regimen you’ve set for yourself.
These single decisions will often set the standard for
our future decisions and hence the cliché regarding
all those New Years’ Resolutions that never last...
What do you do if you find that your immediate
desired outcome competes with your long-term
goal? Find a way to bring the two together so they
support and reinforce each other. For example, to
keep with our fitness/weight loss example, come up
with a positive immediate outcome you can still look
forward to, but that doesn’t compete with your
larger goal. Another way of looking at this is you
want to add things in that you can enjoy now, on
the way to your goal, rather than only take away all
the things you like that derail you from your goal.
For example, I know a woman who got really
excited about reinventing herself and began saving
money to replace her entire wardrobe with new,
updated styles. She also wanted to lose weight so
that she could feel amazing in those new styles.
Rather than get down on herself because of her
weight, she reinforced her desire to get in shape
with a Pinterest Board where she pinned all her
favorite styles. Looking at them motivated her and
kept her on task. She said she emotionally ate up
those pictures just as easily as she would a bag of
potato chips, and so her food cravings vanished.
She was emotionally excited and fulfilled.
I personally think this worked because the focus was
on the styles, not the body shape or size (which can
become negative reinforcement).
Same goes with trying to quit a bad habit. Because
you’re taking something gratifying away in the
immediate moment (an outcome you’ll inevitably
crave as you retrain yourself), come up with a
replacement that equally gratifies you and is also
aligned with your long-term goal.
2. Determine your top 2 needs and primary values
associated with your goal.
Back in Step 6 on Empathy, we discussed the 7
Human Needs and how much you can learn about
yourself or another person based on the 2 top needs
you or someone else has.
When it comes to making choices, you’ll notice that
your top 2 needs can fluctuate depending on the
particular goal or area of life you’re focusing on. So
look at your goal associated with a particular
decision you face. What are the top 2 needs you’re
looking to fulfill with that goal? Are you looking to
feel or express love... or perhaps to experience a
sense of significance and appreciation?
Also look at your primary values associated with that
goal. For example if your goal is to make a certain
amount of money over the next 12 months, what
values are vital to you along that journey?
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P TWE LVE : CHO ICE PO INT
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
7
A father may highly value family and quality time
alongside his efforts to create a new level of
income. A single young woman may value personal
achievement and growth the highest because she
wants to prove to herself what she’s capable of.
That same young woman may instead most highly
value adventure and the knowledge that she struck
out fearlessly to try something new—success or fail.
Can you see how each of these values will produce
different choices?
I like looking at values when making a decision
because we often get overwhelmed with other
people’s values and opinions about the choices we
should make. We think we have to choose family
over career because our parents or significant other
values family the highest of all. On the other hand,
we may feel we have to work at a job we hate
because we think our family values our paycheck
more than our free time and our duty is to provide.
In nearly all cases, the easiest recipe for disaster and
dissatisfaction in life is to make your decisions based
on what you think others want or need from you, or
based on what you think you’re supposed to value
most based on the other people in your life.
By having crystal clarity about your own needs,
values and the Destiny you want to reach, you
reclaim your power to create your own life and
make your own decisions. And when you do, you’ll
find the people you love are almost always happier
as a result—because you are happier, and hence
you’re able to be the best you for them.
3. Gather information (why we’ve focused on
Understanding Your World).
We’ve covered this extensively so far throughout this
course. Just remember here that you want to revisit
the information during key decisions. Also look for
where there may be assumptions or blank spots in
the information for a particular decision. Then
continue gathering information to address and fill
those in.
4. Develop alternative paths to achieve your goal
(creative brainstorming)
At this stage, write down or think through the various
paths/choices available to you. It helps here to think
outside the box and to stay in a creative and
intuitive space. This is not yet the time to be critical
or to determine why a particular path is a good
idea or not. Just be creative. Consider that anything
is possible at this stage. You’ll allow the Inner Critic
to reign in the next step here, so don’t let him or her
in the room just yet!
(Interesting aside, Walt Disney enforced this rule in
all meetings and creative decisions at his company.
He understood that we cannot be creative AND
critical at the same time. The critical part of our
brain will deactivate the creative part and so we
miss a lot of wonderful ideas, insights, intuitions and
creations we could have otherwise had if we simply
divided the processes into two distinct steps.
So create first, then critique later.
5. Explore and list pros and cons of each alternative
path.
Here’s where you get to let your Inner Critic wreak
havoc on your creative brainstorms. ;) Now revisit
each path or choice available to you (if you think
you only have two options, I encourage you to go
back to step 4. There’s always a 3rd, and often
several other options once you distance yourself
from the immediate problem, emotions and people
in your decision-space.
A L IGN YOUR PUR POSE P ROGRAM - S T E P TWE LVE : CHO ICE PO INT
Copyright © 2013 Choice Point with Jaime Mintun - www.choicepointmovement.com
9
6. Make the decision.
The key here is to truly be decisive and to be clear
with yourself. A choice only has the power to lift you
and your life toward the Destiny you desire (by
moving you into a positive pattern that can take
you there) if that choice:
o Addresses your top 1 or 2 needs
o Does not violate your primary values
o Delivers a positive immediate outcome that
is aligned with your larger goal
o Is clearly what is for your highest good and
growth
Additionally, the decisions we tend to regret are
those we make purely for someone else or due to
duty, what is expected of us, what others want or
think is best for us, etc.
7. Immediately take action to implement it.
Most importantly, for a choice to truly empower you
and bring you closer to your Destiny, you must
immediately take action on it and build momentum
with every subsequent choice and action that
reinforces the first one.
We are never perfect, so don’t worry if once in a
while you ‘fall of the wagon.’ Just get back on. All
that takes is the power of choice. And only you hold
that power for yourself.
8. Learn from and reflect on the decision.
Lastly, as we learned in the Step 11, it’s always
important to step back and reflect at key points
along your journey. Once you’ve experienced a
powerful outcome or consequence of a decision—
whether positive or negative—reflect and
determine how your decision and the process you
took to reach it might have led to the outcome or
consequence you experienced. Use that informa-
tion to improve the next decision process you go
through.
Soon it will be second-nature and quick, and you’ll
find that even your big decisions become easy,
immediate and aligned. You’ll also find by doing this
ground work a few times that you get such a clear
compass for what you want and where you’re
headed that you’ll often intuitively know what to do
without even ‘thinking’ about it.
I encourage you to use these 8 steps for your next
big decision. Then that will give you a very clear
directive for all subsequent choices in that area of
your life (or that pertain to that goal).
Re-engage the steps again when you come to a
decision related to a new goal, or when you’ve lost
your direction or clarity on a particular path.
When that happens it’s often just because someone
else’s information has come into your space and
covered up or mixed with your own, which feels
confusing.
You can refer back to our Steps on Empathy and
Intuition for guidance on releasing other people’s
information and energy, and to return to clarity.