Every Good Decision Starts With a Stop 665.5
https://www.doczj.com/doc/c99899784.html,/michael/2010/04/every_good_decision_starts_wit_3.html
More often than we like, most of us face choices that can have serious and lasting impact on our lives. Do we go along with the crowd? Do we tell someone off, quit a job, or end a relationship? Unfortunately, these decisions are not preceded by a drum roll warning us that the stakes are high. Even worse, we often don’t have a lot of time to figure out what to do.
It’s no surprise that most bad decisions – the ones that mess up our lives – are made impulsively or without sufficient reflection.
Ancient proverbs warn us to “Count to ten when you’re angry” or “Think ahead.” But anger and lack of preplanning are only two factors that can impede excellent decision-making. Fatigue, fear, frustration, stress, impatience, and emotions also create obstacles to wise choices.
Just as we learned to look both ways before we cross the street, we can learn to analyze every important decision-making situation to allow us to arrive at conclusions that are both effective and ethical.
Each decision, therefore, should start with a stop – a forced moment of reflection to help us clarify our goal, evaluate the completeness and credibility of our information, and devise an alternate strategy, if necessary, to achieve the best possible result. Stopping also allows us to muster our moral willpower to overcome temptations and emotions that could lead to a rash, foolish, or ill-considered decision.
While it’s great to have a day or two to sleep on a problem, or even a few hours, many situations don’t afford us that luxury. But a pause of even a few seconds can often be enough.
不管喜欢与否，我们大多数人都经常面临许多抉择，从而对人生造成重大而深远的影响。我们是否跟随大流了？
是否与人发生冲突，辞退工作，或者结束恋情了？不幸的是，做决定之前没人警醒我们风险之大。更糟糕的是，我们通常无暇细想下一步行动。
故此，毫无意外，大部分的错误决定——那些给生活添乱的决定——都是鲁莽或未经充分考虑的结果。
古语有云，“三思而后行”，“未雨绸缪”。然而，愤怒与欠缺计划都会影响抉择的质量。疲惫、惧意、挫折感、压力、不耐与个人感情皆会妨碍我们做出明智抉择。
就像我们学会在过马路前看左右一样，我们亦要学会分析每种关键的决择情况，以便我们做出合情合理的决定。
所以，每次抉择之前，停下来想一想——迫使自己有一刻反思，有利于我们明确目标，评估现有信息的完整性和准确性，以及如有需要，想出候补方法，务求得到最令人满意的结果。停下来想想还使我们凝聚意志力，抵抗诱惑和情感的干扰，避免做出鲁莽、愚蠢或欠缺考虑的决定。
最好的情况当然是
放松一两天或甚是几小时，好好地考虑问题，但是这对我们来说太奢侈了，许多人都负担不起。然而，一刻静思还是足够的。