Choose Our Hard

At an EPIC Business Connections networking meeting, the group leader, Bryan Daly, showed a video called "Choose Our Hard". The narrator says,

"Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard.
Choose Your Hard.

Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard.
Choose Your Hard.

Being in debt is hard. Being financially responsible is hard.
Choose Your Hard.

Life will never be easy.
It will always be hard.
But we can choose our hard."

When I think of this quote, I think about the importance of teaching our children the skill of decision making at an early age.

Parents can begin the process by simply having their child choose between two outfits to wear or two vegetables to eat at dinner. Increase the importance as they get older.

Children will always have to make hard decisions. Do I try out for the soccer team or the school play? Both have practices every day. Do I go to a classmate's big party or go to the movies with my best friend who wasn't invited?

We can assist our children to learn decision making skills by assuring they understand the steps to making a decision:

1. Identify the issue
2. Gather and analyze information
3. Consider all possible solutions
4. Identify consequences of each solution (pros & cons)
5. Make the decision
6. Evaluate the results of the decision

These steps, if learned in childhood, will help adults make decisions concerning the more complex issues in their lives.