the best decision in my life essay

I asked hundreds of people about their biggest life decisions. Here’s what I learned

Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Technology Sydney

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Adrian R. Camilleri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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You make decisions all the time. Most are small. However, some are really big : they have ramifications for years or even decades. In your final moments, you might well think back on these decisions — and some you may regret.

Part of what makes big decisions so significant is how rare they are. You don’t get an opportunity to learn from your mistakes. If you want to make big decisions you won’t regret, it’s important you learn from others who have been there before.

There is a good deal of existing research into what people regret in their lives. In my current project, I decided to approach the problem from the other end and ask people about their life’s biggest decisions.

What are life’s biggest decisions?

I have spent most of my career studying what you might call small decisions: what product to buy , which portfolio to invest in , and who to hire . But none of this research was very helpful when, a few years ago, I found myself having to make some big life decisions.

To better understand what life’s biggest decisions are, I recruited 657 Americans aged between 20 and 80 years old to tell me about the ten biggest decisions in their lives so far.

Each decision was classified into one of nine categories and 58 subcategories. At the end of the survey, respondents ranked the ten decisions from biggest to smallest. You can take the survey yourself here . (If you do, your answers may help develop my research further.)

The following chart shows each of the 58 decision subcategories in terms of how often it was mentioned (along the horizontal axis) and how big the decision was considered in retrospect (along the vertical axis).

In the upper right of the chart we see decisions that are both very significant and very common. Getting married and having a child stand out clearly here.

Other fairly common big life decisions include starting a new job and pursuing a degree. Less common, but among the highest ranked life decisions, include ending a life – such as that of an unborn child or a dying parent – and engaging in self-harm.

Of course, the results depend on who you ask. Men in their 70s have different answers than women in their 30s. To explore this data more deeply, I’ve built a tool that allows you to filter these results down to specific types of respondents.

Read more: How to help take control of your brain and make better decisions

What are life’s biggest regrets?

Much can also be learned about how to make good life decisions by asking people what their biggest regrets are. Regret is a negative emotion you feel when reflecting on past decisions and wishing you had done something differently.

In 2012, Australian caregiver Bronnie Ware wrote a book about her experiences in palliative care. There were five regrets that dying people told her about most often:

• I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
• I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
• I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
• I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends
• I wish I had let myself be happier.

This anecdotal evidence has received support from more rigorous academic research. For example, a 2011 study asked a nationally representative sample of 270 Americans to describe one significant life regret. The six most commonly reported regrets involved romance (19.3%), family (16.9%), education (14.0%), career (13.8%), finance (9.9%), and parenting (9.0%).

Although lost loves and unfulfilling relationships were the most common regrets, there was an interesting gender difference. For women, regrets about love (romance/family) were more common than regrets about work (career/education), while the reverse was true for men.

What causes regret?

Several factors increase the chances you will feel regret.

In the long run it is inaction — deciding not to pursue something — that generates more regret . This is particularly true for males, especially when it comes to romantic relationships . If only I had asked her out, we might now be happily married.

Poor decisions produce greater regret when it is harder to justify those decisions in retrospect. I really value my friends and family so why did I leave them all behind to take up that overseas job?

Given that we are social beings, poor decisions in domains relevant to our sense of social belonging — such as romantic and family contexts — are more often regretted . Why did I break up my family by having a fling?

Regrets tend to be strongest for lost opportunities : that is, when undesirable outcomes that could have been prevented in the past can no longer be affected. I could have had a better relationship with my daughter if I had been there more often when she was growing up.

The most enduring regrets in life result from decisions that move you further from the ideal person that you want to be . I wanted to be a role model but I couldn’t put the wine bottle down.

Making big life decisions without regrets

These findings provide valuable lessons for those with big life decisions ahead, which is nearly everyone. You’re likely to have to keep making big decisions over the whole course of your life.

The most important decisions in life relate to family and friends. Spend the time getting these decisions right and then don’t let other distractions — particularly those at work — undermine these relationships.

Seize opportunities. You can apologise or change course later but you can’t time travel. Your education and experience can never be lost.

Read more: Running the risk: why experience matters when making decisions

Avoid making decisions that violate your personal values and move you away from your aspirational self. If you have good justifications for a decision now, no matter what happens, you’ll at least not regret it later.

I continue to ask people to tell me about their biggest life decisions. It’s a great way to learn about someone. Once I have collected enough stories, I hope to write a book so that we can all learn from the collective wisdom of those who have been there before.

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Essays About Choice: Top 5 Examples and 8 Prompts

Finding it hard to start your essays about choice? Here are our essay examples and prompts to inspire you. 

Making choices, whether big or small, makes up the very journey of our lives. Our choices are influenced by various factors, such as our preferences, beliefs, experiences, and cognitive capacity. Our choices unravel our lives and shape us into the person we choose to be. 

However, humans can easily be distracted and could be irrational when making choices. With this, new studies have emerged to learn more accurately about our thought processes and help us move beyond our limited rationality when making our choices. 

Read on and see our round-up of compelling essay examples and prompts to inspire you in writing your piece about choice.

1. The Art Of Decision-Making by Joshua Rothman

2. tactical generals: leaders, technology, and the perils by peter w. singer, 3. how your emotions influence your decisions by svetlana w. whitener, 4. how to choose the right pet for you by roxanna coldiron, 5. how to make money decisions when the future is uncertain by veronica dagher and julia carpenter, 1. the hardest but best choice in my life, 2. how to make good decisions, 3. “my body, my choice.”, 4. the consequences of bad choices, 5. how consumers make choices, 6. the rise of behavioral economics, 7. moral choices, 8. analyzed the poem “the road not taken.”.

“One of the paradoxes of life is that our big decisions are often less calculated than our small ones are. We agonize over what to stream on Netflix, then let TV shows persuade us to move to New York; buying a new laptop may involve weeks of Internet research, but the deliberations behind a life-changing breakup could consist of a few bottles of wine.”

The article dives deep into the mind’s methods of making choices. It tackles various theories and analyses from various writers and philosophers, such as the decision theory where you make a “multidimensional matrix” in coming up with the most viable choice based on your existing values and the “transformative experience” where today’s values may not determine your tomorrow but makes you fulfilled, nevertheless.

Check out these essays about reading and essays about the contemporary world .

“The challenge is that tactical generals often overestimate how much they really know about what happens on the ground. New technologies may give them an unprecedented view of the battlefield and the ability to reach into it as never before, but this view remains limited.”

Fourth industrial technologies such as artificial intelligence are everywhere and are now penetrating the military system, enabling generals to make more tactical choices. This development allows generals a broader insight into the situation, stripped of the emotional and human interventions that can spoil a rational and sound choice. However, these computer systems remain fraught with challenges and must be dealt with with caution.

“… emotions influence, skew or sometimes completely determine the outcome of a large number of decisions we are confronted with in a day. Therefore, it behooves all of us who want to make the best, most objective decisions to know all we can about emotions and their effect on our decision-making.”

Whitener stresses that external and hormonal factors significantly affect our decisions but determining the role and impact of our emotions helps us make positive decisions. This exercise requires being circumspect in our emotions in a given situation and, of course, not making a decision when under stress or pressure.  Check out these essays about respect .

“Whether we choose to adopt a cat, dog, rabbit, fish, bird, hamster, or guinea pig, knowing that we provide that animal with the best care that it needs is an important aspect of being a pet caretaker. But it’s also about the individual animal.”

Knowing which pet is best for you boils down to carefully evaluating your limits and lifestyle preference. This essay provides a list of questions you should first ask yourself regarding the time and energy you can commit before adopting a pet. It also provides a run-through of pets and their habits that can match your limits and preferences. 

How do I know when is a good time to invest? The article answers this burning financial question and many more amid a period of financial uncertainties propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provides tips, such as evaluating your short and long-term financial goals and tapping an accountant or financial adviser, to help readers make a confident choice in their finances. 

8 Prompts On essays about choice

Get creative with our list of prompts on choice:

What is now your best choice may have seemed a difficult one at first. So, talk about the situation where you had to make this hard decision. Then, lay down the lessons you have learned from analyzing the pros and cons of a situation and how you are now benefiting from this choice. Your scenarios can range from picking your school or course for college or dropping out some toxic friends or relatives. 

Making the right choice is a life skill, but it’s easier said than done. First, gather recent research studies that shed light on the various factors that affect how we come up with our choices. Then, look into the best practices to make good decisions based on what psychologists, therapists, and other experts recommend. Finally, to add a personal touch to your essay, describe how you make decisions that effectively result in positive outcomes.  

“My Body, My Choice” is a feminist slogan that refers to women’s right to choose what’s best for their bodies. The slogan aimed to resist the traditional practice of fixed marriages and fight for women’s reproductive rights, such as abortion. For this prompt, you may underscore the importance of listening to women when making policies and rules that involve their bodies and health. You may even discuss the controversial Roe v. Wade ruling and provide your insights on this landmark overturn of women’s rights to abortion.

Bad choices in major life decisions can lead to disastrous events. And we’ve all had our fair share of bad choices. So first, analyze why people tend to make bad decisions. Next, write about the common consequences students face when they fall into the trap of bad choices. Then, talk about an experience where your bad judgment led you to an undesirable situation. Finally, write the lessons you’ve learned from this experience and how this improved your life choices. 

How does a shopper’s mind work? Your essay can answer this through the lens of marketers. You can start by mapping out the stages consumers go through when choosing. Then, identify the fundamental principles that help marketers effectively drive more sales—finally, research how marketers are persuading their target audience through their branding imagery and emotional connection.

Behavioral economics combines the teaching of psychology and economics to study how humans arrive at their economic choices. The discipline challenges the fundamental principle in economic models, which assumes that humans make rational choices. First, provide a brief overview of behavioral economics and how it was born and evolved over the decades. Finally, offer insights on how you think behavioral economics can be adopted in private companies and government agencies to improve decision-making. 

First, define a moral choice. Then, enumerate the factors that can shape a moral choice, such as religion, ethics, culture, and gender. You can also zoom into a certain scenario that sparks debates on the morality of choice, such as in warfare when generals decide whether to drop a bomb or when to forge on or withdraw from a battle. Finally, you may also feature people in history who have managed to let their moral code prevail in their judgment and actions, even in the face of great danger.

Making choices and the opportunities one can miss out on are the central themes in this poem by Robert Frost. First, summarize the poem and analyze what the author says about making choices. Then, attempt to answer what the diverging roads represent and what taking the less traveled road signifies. Finally, narrate an event in your life when you made an unpopular choice. Share whether you regret the choice or ended up being satisfied with it.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips .

But if you’re still stuck, there’s no need to fret. Instead, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

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What Are The Top Five Best Decisions You Ever Made? Alex Varova

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The decisions I describe here changed my life and defined who I am today. Let me tell you how it all happened.

1. Going for my childhood dream

At the age of 10, I knew exactly what I want to do in the future. I had a dream to go to South Korea and achieve success there. It may sound strange to you, but it was a perfectly natural decision to me at the time.

I was born in Vladivostok, a small town in the Russia’s Far East. When I was 10, my mother started working at the Korean Consulate and my world changed at once. It was a year of 1991, the time of collapse of the Soviet Union, and this new foreign land that my mother “brought home” was like a ray of light. I was fascinated with everything this magical foreign land had to offer: music, language, culture, people, food, etc. So, I made a decision to do everything I could to realise my dream.

So, I started learning Korean when I was 15 years old, by taking language classes at the local cultural center, chose to major in Korean studies at the Russian university, and packed my bags and left for a foreign land all by myself at the age of 18.

2. Leaving my dream land

My life-changing journey in Korea started in Changwon, a small town in the South of Korea. I came as an exchange student after receiving a scholarship to study at the Changwon National University.

It was a magical time! I was finally living in a country I dreamt of for so long.

So, I was working hard. My Korean language skills and knowledge of Korea were growing day by day. I would spend hours after classes memorising new words, practicing speeches, reading Korean news, training myself to speak a business language. At one point, I was even asked by the Changwon University administration to be a Russian-Korean interpreter during Dean’s official visit to Russia. And even though I was unsure of what I wanted to do professionally, I was fascinated by the idea of providing value in bringing Russian and Korean businesses together.

The Donghwan Industrial Corporation, a producer of air conditioning systems for vehicles that provided my scholarship, planned a different future for me. After two years of studies, the company ended my scholarship and offered me to join the corporation as a secretary.

I was devastated. I did not have time to prepare my back up plan and going back home to Vladivostok was not even an option as I had come so far already.

And so I decided to give it a chance. I accepted the offer.

I would come to office before anyone else, dust off the glassy top executive floor and prepare green tea in time for the executives’ start of the day.

I hated it.

It was not how I pictured my success and I definitely did not see myself working as a secretary. I saw zero value in what I was doing and most importantly I was not learning anything, except mastering the art of serving green tea.

So, I made one of the toughest decisions in my life. I decided to go back home to Vladivostok and start over.

3. Not giving up and preserving

From my experience, I knew that Korea is a highly competitive job market, where the majority of young people pursue higher studies. Fluency in Korean is a must, unless you are an engineer or a highly experienced professional. Plus, most of the recruitment is done through introductions. So, I knew that if I wanted to achieve success on my own terms, I had to build my reputation and network by attending the top university in Korea. And so, the tough application period began.

I have to admit, there were times when I doubted my decision to leave Changwon. There were moments when I doubted myself too and whether I was at all worthy to win the top scholarship. “Am I aiming too high?” - I would ask myself. But I was slowly making one step at a time, moving towards my goal, staying focused, and working hard each day.

I was in heaven when I received the news that I gained a scholarship to study at one of Korea’s top universities, Yonsei, located in Seoul.

4. Challenging myself further

Upon graduation with a Master’s degree in business, I was offered to join Samsung in Seoul, the most desired company to work at for many Koreans and also for me at the time, as I craved for an opportunity to bring value to Korean and Russian businesses.

I spent seven years at Samsung helping identify business opportunities for Korean businesses, developing market entry strategies and executing multi-million dollar projects. I was playing a role of a bridge connecting businesses thanks to my fluency in Korean language, negotiation skills and business acumen.

However, there came a time when I felt that I was living in my comfort zone, whilst I craved to grow and challenge myself on the global arena. I wanted to surround myself with like-minded people to inspire and get inspired, to reflect on my achievements so far and decide where I see myself in the future.

So, I made a decision to do an MBA at the top school in the world, INSEAD.

This experience changed my life forever: I learnt from the best and I made friends from all over the world, each with a unique story and experience. I was now among many others, who had difficulty answering a simple question “Where are you from?”, which I can answer only with a huge BUT. “I am Russian, BUT I lived in South Korea for over a decade”.

I knew that, thanks to INSEAD, I have got the best support no matter where my life and my career takes me.

5. Redefining my future yet again

INSEAD not only lifted me to the global business arena, but also opened my mind to entrepreneurship. A lot of my classmates started businesses after graduation or shortly after.

I did have a few ideas as well: a boutique hotel in an exotic location, a restaurant featuring signature family recipes, and even an UBER-type of dog care (I had a tough time finding one for my dog, Rex, when I lived in France and Switzerland). But none of them really clicked.

It was not until some years ago, when my husband had designed a jewelry piece for my birthday. It was an old Spanish coin, found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, encased in gold on a cable chain. Not only did I love the design myself, but I also received a lot of compliments, as the coin was rare and every time I would tell the story of where it originated from.

It was an “AHA!” moment, when I decided to start building our personal brand and share all the learnings and philosophy I learnt in Asia through our unique jewelry designs.

As I am writing this text, we are finalising the designs and starting to share our stories about our life in Asia and our entrepreneurial journey to motivate and inspire others in their quest to realise their full potential.

I guess …  I will end this article by saying “to be continued”. We will be sharing every step and lesson of our journey, as we move forward.

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The Best Decision I Ever Made

A life is made of a million decisions, forks in the road that require a choice: Do I want to be a lawyer or a film producer? Should I travel across the world to attend college? Do I need to stop drinking martinis? Should I take the lucrative job offer if it means spending less time with my family?

Related:  Stop Overthinking It: 9 Ways to Make Decisions With Confidence

Sometimes we know the answers intuitively and quickly decide. Other times we debate endlessly, agonizing our way toward an answer. At pivotal points in life, the number of decisions can be overwhelming .

Robert Frost suggested that the best path was the less predictable one.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

That was true for some of the achievers we talked to—that taking risks led to fantastic success . But others said well-worn paths work, too. That’s why choosing can be so difficult. Here are what some decision-makers described as their best choices, how they were made, and how those decisions helped lead them toward success and happiness.

Blake Shelton

Country music star and The Voice judge

The best decision I ever made was two weeks out of high school I moved to Nashville to pursue my dream of being a country singer. I think if I hadn’t made that decision at such a young age I might have been afraid to do it later on in life.

James Patterson

Best-selling author who is releasing his latest book, Filthy Rich , in October

I’d like to think I’ve occasionally made good decisions in my life (first among them marrying my wife, Sue)—but professionally, I’d say that leaving my post as North American CEO of J. Walter Thompson.

At the time I left, I was being considered as a candidate for worldwide CEO, and it’s scary to contemplate a second career when you’re doing that well. But I knew I never truly had a passion for advertising. As a business, I’d always found it more difficult than it had to be—it’s surprisingly hard to sell clients blueprints that communicate what a television campaign is going to look like before it’s filmed. And every client you deal with is very different than the last.

Leaving JWT was a decision that I’ve never regretted, but it wasn’t easy. You never know what’s going to happen. All I knew at the time was that I loved writing and that I wanted to do more of it. So I kept writing and haven’t stopped since. I’ve never been happier. And I’ve never been more successful.

Author, financial adviser and motivational speaker

Fifteen years ago I decided that I didn’t want to live a lie anymore. I wanted to stand in my truth. I didn’t want people in my life who did not support me—emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. I only wanted people in my life who were positive influences on others and me.

So at the age of 50, I decided to make a clean sweep. I took a hard look at my friends, my employees and a relationship I’d been in for eight years. In just one week, I ended a lot of relationships, cutting off some friendships I’d had for a good 15 years.

And I have to tell you, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Because the true key to success, believe it or not, is to keep good company. You might have a great idea, one that is great for you, but others will try to sabotage you.

When you stand in the truth of who you are, on all levels, then you become the most powerful person that you can be. The world is attracted to truth. The world is repelled by lies. When people can feel something isn’t right, they’re repelled from you, from your product, from your idea, from hiring you, from being around you. When you speak the truth—and act in the truth—everybody is attracted to you.

Alana Jane Nichols

Three-time gold medalist in the Paralympic Games

I went to college at the University of New Mexico. To everyone there, I was a disabled girl in a wheelchair. I got really depressed. I started thinking about suicide. I just didn’t want to live the rest of my life in that chair. It was unbearable.

Then I rolled into the university gym one Wednesday afternoon. That’s when I saw a whole team of people playing basketball in wheelchairs. They were violent and loud and hitting each other. They’d fall over in their wheelchairs; then just get back up. It was wild and ridiculous.

At some point they noticed me, and they stopped playing. They asked me my name. They asked me if I wanted to play. I had always been a rough-and-tumble girl, but since my accident, everyone had treated me like I was fragile.

That day I rolled myself onto the court, and I decided to keep playing.

Author and entrepreneur

The best decision I ever made was the decision to start making decisions. To respond and initiate, not merely to react or take what’s on offer. Mostly, the commitment to pick myself, to pursue a path that mattered to me and the people I work with. We have way more freedom than we realize , but it begins with deciding.

Soledad O’Brien

Award-winning broadcast journalist and CEO of Starfish Media Group

I knew I wanted to have a substantial career . I also knew I wanted to get married and have kids. Lots of kids.

Because I was very strategic about it, it helped me make decisions all along the way. I had it mapped out, the things that were all important to me—career, husband, children. Now I’ve been married for more than 20 years, I have four children, and I love my work.

I like to give this advice to young women: Be as intentional about planning your family life as you are about planning your career. That’s what worked for me.

Alan Parsons

Songwriter, musician and record producer

Who would turn down working with Pink Floyd in their heyday? I did.

Recording Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon was not a very lucrative activity. I was a staff engineer at Abbey Road Studios on a fixed salary of 35 pounds a week. Following the album’s success, I turned down a substantial full-time job offer from the band to work as their recording and live sound engineer.

I was fortunate enough to soon enjoy immediate chart success as an independent music producer with a number of British and American artists. I had the creative freedom to produce artists of my own choice, and to continue with the formation of The Alan Parsons Project, which in retrospect might not have happened if I had accepted that job.

Joel Osteen

Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston and author of Think Better, Live Better , released in October

My best decision, after marrying my wife, Victoria, of course, was the decision to take over as the senior pastor at Lakewood Church.

After my father went to be with the Lord, I felt a deep desire to step up and serve as pastor of Lakewood Church. Having preached only once in my life—a week before my father died—that desire was soon bombarded by a variety of negative thoughts. Today when I see the opportunities to make a difference in the lives of so many people, I am truly grateful for God’s grace and the strength to have made that decision years ago.

Mike Rawlings

Mayor of Dallas

I’ve made a lot of decisions—I’m old—but I think the seminal one for me was deciding to stay in Dallas. I came to Dallas in 1976 after graduating from Boston College. I didn’t like Dallas very much. I thought I’d stay here for a few years, then move back East. But I went through a divorce in my first marriage and my daughter was here. I really wanted to be near her. So I decided to stay in Dallas. And I think that made me accomplish what I think is the most important job a person has, if you’re lucky enough to have kids: to be a good parent.

I think how you go about decision-making is important. A lot of decisions I face, I don’t immediately know what the right answers are. If I’ve got the time, I let those decisions come to me. You need to feel decisions as well as think them; they have to make sense both intellectually and emotionally. Then once you know what the answer is, you move quickly.

Diane Warren

Legendary eight-time Oscar nominee and Grammy-winning songwriter

The best decision I’ve ever made is to follow my own vision. I’ve never been someone to go around asking, “What do you think? What do you think?” I’ve always let my passion lead me. I’ve tried to just keep my blinders on and go for what I believe in. I know when something is great. When I know this, nothing stops me.

Paul Levine

President of Trulia

By far the best decision I ever made was to move from the East Coast to Silicon Valley 20 years ago. I grew up in the New York suburbs, and I was fascinated with technology. I realized that all of the companies I wanted to work for were located within 10 miles of each other in Silicon Valley. I wanted to be in the center of the action.

I’d advise people to think about where they live, based on what they want to do. If you want to work in automotive, you might want to move to Detroit. If you’re interested in entertaining, you probably want to be in Los Angeles.

Get to where the action is.

Arianna Huffington

Co-founder of The Huffington Post and author of The Sleep Revolution

The best decision I ever made was committing to getting eight hours of sleep a night. For many years I subscribed to a very flawed definition of success, buying into our collective delusion that burnout is the necessary price we must pay for success. Then in 2007, I had a painful wakeup call: I fainted from sleep-deprivation and exhaustion, hit my head on my desk, and broke my cheekbone. From that point on, I knew I had to make sleep a priority .

Now, 95 percent of the time I get eight hours of sleep a night. Once I started giving sleep the respect it deserves, my life improved in pretty much every way. Now, instead of waking up to the sense that I have to trudge through activities, I wake up feeling joyful about the day’s possibilities. I’m also better able to recognize red flags and rebound from setbacks. It’s like being dialed into a different channel that has less static.

TV legend and winner of seven Emmy awards

The best decision I ever made was taking the job on The Mary Tyler Moore Show . It was as fine a decision as I ever made. I was branching out into an area of comedy that I hadn’t perfected yet, so there was a lot to master. Taking that role changed my life.

One thing that comedy did for me as an actor is that, no matter how gripping a role may be, it’s not real unless you can incorporate comedy into it. It always makes a role more believable. That role helped me learn so many things I needed to know.

Mehmet Oz, m.d.,

Surgeon, author and television personality

After 31 years, I can say without question that the best decision that I ever made was marrying my wife, Lisa. I found a worthy opponent and wisely put a ring on

her. She had bigger aspirations for me than were on my vision board and mastered the art of telling me what I need to hear rather than what I want to hear. She fills in the many areas where I am weak and turbocharges my strengths. In failure, she steadies my foundation. In success, she maintains a balanced perspective.

Mandy Ginsberg

CEO for Match group North America

The night before my mother died of ovarian cancer, she did a blood test, and we discovered she had the BRCA1 mutation. With this mutation, you have a roughly 90 percent chance of having breast cancer—which my mom had in her 30s—and you have a up to 70 percent chance of having ovarian cancer.

I got tested, and I tested positive for the defect. Then I had a choice to make. Unlike the genetic tests for Alzheimer’s—for which there’s not much you can do—you can take preventive measures for this. So in my 40s, I had a preventative double mastectomy, and then a couple of years later I had a hysterectomy and oophorectomy.

In some ways, it wasn’t even a decision—I watched my mother die. With my genetics, I felt as if a bomb were going to go off at any minute. It has given me a great sense of relief, the feeling that I will have a longer runway in front of me, more time to spend with my own two daughters, more time to do the work that I love .

Lynn Whitfield

Actress and producer

When I was younger, several people forced me to think seriously about planning for retirement. So I did that, kicking and screaming. But now that I’m older, I’m grateful. That has allowed me to explore my art, without worrying about whether I work next week. It’s given me a great deal of security and freedom.

Another big decision is that three or four years ago I re-evaluated my priorities, took another look at what it takes for me to be comfortable. I started downsizing and that has made such a huge difference. I have no interest in keeping up with the Joneses or anyone else. I chose to simplify and pare down, do what I want to do, be where I want to be.

I have so many friends who are very well off and they are still having conversations about not being fulfilled. They’re wondering, What is the meaning of my life? I don’t feel that way, because I feel as if I’m living my purpose .

Dave Coulier

Stand-up comedian and actor in the Netflix series, Fuller House , and author of The Adventures of Jimmy Burger 

I grew up in Detroit, and everyone there worked in the automotive industry. You pretty much decided between the big three: Chrysler, General Motors or Ford. But I was interested in entertainment and stand-up comedy and doing silly voices for a living.

So I moved to Los Angeles and threw myself into the unknown fire. I also decided to forgo college, and everyone thought I was crazy. But I thought, No one in college is going to teach me how to do funny cartoon voices or how to be a comedy writer.

Back then, at 19 years old, I was too inexperienced and naive to know the odds—they weren’t good. But it ended up being the best decision I ever made because it completely shaped and changed my world.

Ian Ziering

Actor in Beverly Hills 90210 and Sharknado , and entrepreneur

I’ve always looked at the celebrity I’ve earned as capital.  I believe spending that capital doing good things for other people is the best way to spend it.  When I was asked to participate in The Celebrity Apprentice , I felt lucky and honored to have the chance to raise money and awareness of a horrible disease called epidermolysis bullosa. With that goal in mind, I came to the show with a no-lose mentality , and it was the best decision I ever made.

Though Leeza Gibbons ultimately won the title and $320,000 for EBKids.org, getting to mention EB on every prime time show produced that season was all I needed to feel like a winner.

Katie Kellett

Director of imprints at Arcadia Publishing

At 40 years old I made a decision to run . It wasn’t a well-thought-out decision; it was a spur of the moment choice on a miserably hot summer day in Charleston, South Carolina. 

I am the most unlikely of runners: I have never been an athlete, I smoked for the better part of two decades, and I was one of those people who always quipped, “I only run if someone is chasing me with a knife.”

But in the months that preceded that hot summer day, I had quit smoking and I’d begun to exercise. I was going through a divorce and looking for positive outlets to channel my anger and anxiety, wishing especially not to channel them toward my 5-year-old daughter. 

So I laced up my shoes, walked out the door and started to run. That first run was brutal and, truth be told, almost every one of them has been brutal since that day.

And although I haven’t exactly hated shopping for smaller clothes, the real reward has been something much deeper. Running has opened up ideas of possibility for me; I see myself in a different light.

Sarah Hepola

Author of the New York Times best-seller, Blackout

I quit drinking at the age of 35. I did not want to do it. I’d loved alcohol since I was a girl. It had been my rebellion, my path to adventure, my identity, my life companion and, eventually, my undoing. What happens when you rely on booze to fix you is that you don’t learn to soothe yourself. I’ve heard other problem drinkers say if they hadn’t quit, they probably would have died. I never thought that. But I did think, If I don’t quit, I’m never going to live.

My world had become so small by the end. Addiction is life on a very short leash. I was unhappy—no, miserable—for the first year of sobriety. I felt bitter and robbed, but with time I began to see how much I had been drinking away: my gifts, my clarity, this present moment. Sobriety was a chance to start my life over and discover all the joys in my own body that I had been drinking in order to find: confidence, creative inspiration, pleasure.

I am 41 now, a beginner in many ways, and I think of quitting drinking as the beginning of my adulthood—the moment I decided to take full responsibility for my life and, in doing so, finally made it great.

Mark Victor Hansen

Motivational speaker and co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul

The best decision that I ever made after my painful divorce was to keep my heart open to the idea that I could still find my true love in this lifetime. I started by writing a list of 267 ideals that I desired in a marriage and marital partner, if I were ever to marry again. I wanted someone who could share my values, spiritual beliefs, ambition, desire, drive, hopes, and big goals for the future. I wrote that we needed to have absolute love for each other and a mutual affinity for projects we undertook. I believe that clarity of thinking and spiritual alignment with God creates the space for dreams and goals to manifest. Once created, then you need to be awake and aware when the answered prayers show up on your path.

My answer presented at an Author 101 conference. From the stage, I saw in the audience a vision of loveliness, charisma, style, and perfection in motion. I asked and discovered the woman I couldn’t take my eyes off was divorced. Fortuitously, in the evening VIP reception where I was surrounded by people who were barraging me with questions. I noticed from across the room, someone suddenly spilled red wine on this glorious woman’s white slacks. Opportunity presented itself. I responded. I broke from my group of fans and rushed to her rescue. I promised that I knew the secret doorway to the kitchen and the Club Soda to save her stained slacks. I took her hand and rushed us out of the questioning throngs, and once the club soda was procured, I was able to chat a little bit with her to find out more about her. We had instant camaraderie and after a few minutes of chatting, I knew there was something very special about this woman, and our encounter. Even her name, Crystal, seemed like the perfect fit.

I gently invited Crystal to dine at a nice restaurant in the in Hollywood neighborhood, and she admitted she was starving, as was I. When we arrived at the restaurant, the line to get in was long and a hundred dollar bill would not gain entry, I felt assured. I approached the maître d’ smiling. He looked at her, saw her radiant undeniable glow and said to me: “Who is she?” I jokingly said: “She is the Queen of Denmark.” He said, “No way, really?” Oh my gosh, she is! And who are you?” I know as a lifelong sales trainer to answer a question with a question and said playfully, “Who travels with the Queen?” “Oh my, you’re the King! Wait right here one second and we’ll get you the perfect table.”  I glanced at Crystal who had a huge smile on her face. She whispered, “I think it’s too late to too tell him you were kidding.” After a couple of hours of extraordinary conversation and a lovely dinner, it felt like we had known each other forever.

Throughout our courtship, I would have to pinch myself because it really seemed as though my dreams had truly been fulfilled. I asked her repeatedly to marry me because she always said “Yes!” and I never got tired of hearing that answer!

Eight years later we are happily married, beyond what either of us ever imagined could have happened. It is said there is a level beyond Soul Mates, called Twin Flames in which when two people come together, like flames from two candles when they’re joined, they rise together as one flame to exponentially higher levels. Crystal is my Twin Flame and I am hers.

After almost giving up on love after my bitter divorce, the decision I made to find the courage to continue to believe in my dreams and goals, and in the divine power that orchestrates them into reality is the best decision I have ever or will ever make.

Dr. Travis Stork

ER physician, best-selling author and host of the Emmy Award-winning series, The Doctors

I never intended to be a doctor and took a consulting job after I graduated as a math and economics major from Duke. I began volunteering at a free health clinic and it was there that I found my true calling. The best decision I ever made was to take a leap of faith and go back to medical school. I took the prerequisite classes needed at night while continuing to work. I still remember, like it was yesterday, shedding tears of joy as I sat on my front porch reading my medical school acceptance letter. My career in medicine has given my life purpose and helping people live the healthiest life possible has become my true passion. 

Related:  A Guide for Making Tough Decisions

This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine .

Jamie Thompson

Jamie Thompson is a freelance writer based in Dallas.

5473 Blair Road, Suite 100 PMB 30053 Dallas, TX 75231

Copyright © 2024 SUCCESS Magazine. All rights reserved.

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Follow YES! For Teachers

Eight brilliant student essays on what matters most in life.

Read winning essays from our spring 2019 student writing contest.

For the spring 2019 student writing contest, we invited students to read the YES! article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age” by Nancy Hill. Like the author, students interviewed someone significantly older than them about the three things that matter most in life. Students then wrote about what they learned, and about how their interviewees’ answers compare to their own top priorities.

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these eight were chosen as winners. Be sure to read the author’s response to the essay winners and the literary gems that caught our eye. Plus, we share an essay from teacher Charles Sanderson, who also responded to the writing prompt.

Middle School Winner: Rory Leyva

High School Winner:  Praethong Klomsum

University Winner:  Emily Greenbaum

Powerful Voice Winner: Amanda Schwaben

Powerful Voice Winner: Antonia Mills

Powerful Voice Winner:  Isaac Ziemba

Powerful Voice Winner: Lily Hersch

“Tell It Like It Is” Interview Winner: Jonas Buckner

From the Author: Response to Student Winners

Literary Gems

From A Teacher: Charles Sanderson

From the Author: Response to Charles Sanderson

Middle School Winner

Village Home Education Resource Center, Portland, Ore.

The Lessons Of Mortality 

“As I’ve aged, things that are more personal to me have become somewhat less important. Perhaps I’ve become less self-centered with the awareness of mortality, how short one person’s life is.” This is how my 72-year-old grandma believes her values have changed over the course of her life. Even though I am only 12 years old, I know my life won’t last forever, and someday I, too, will reflect on my past decisions. We were all born to exist and eventually die, so we have evolved to value things in the context of mortality.

One of the ways I feel most alive is when I play roller derby. I started playing for the Rose City Rollers Juniors two years ago, and this year, I made the Rosebud All-Stars travel team. Roller derby is a fast-paced, full-contact sport. The physicality and intense training make me feel in control of and present in my body.

My roller derby team is like a second family to me. Adolescence is complicated. We understand each other in ways no one else can. I love my friends more than I love almost anything else. My family would have been higher on my list a few years ago, but as I’ve aged it has been important to make my own social connections.

Music led me to roller derby.  I started out jam skating at the roller rink. Jam skating is all about feeling the music. It integrates gymnastics, breakdancing, figure skating, and modern dance with R & B and hip hop music. When I was younger, I once lay down in the DJ booth at the roller rink and was lulled to sleep by the drawl of wheels rolling in rhythm and people talking about the things they came there to escape. Sometimes, I go up on the roof of my house at night to listen to music and feel the wind rustle my hair. These unique sensations make me feel safe like nothing else ever has.

My grandma tells me, “Being close with family and friends is the most important thing because I haven’t

always had that.” When my grandma was two years old, her father died. Her mother became depressed and moved around a lot, which made it hard for my grandma to make friends. Once my grandma went to college, she made lots of friends. She met my grandfather, Joaquin Leyva when she was working as a park ranger and he was a surfer. They bought two acres of land on the edge of a redwood forest and had a son and a daughter. My grandma created a stable family that was missing throughout her early life.

My grandma is motivated to maintain good health so she can be there for her family. I can relate because I have to be fit and strong for my team. Since she lost my grandfather to cancer, she realizes how lucky she is to have a functional body and no life-threatening illnesses. My grandma tries to eat well and exercise, but she still struggles with depression. Over time, she has learned that reaching out to others is essential to her emotional wellbeing.  

Caring for the earth is also a priority for my grandma I’ve been lucky to learn from my grandma. She’s taught me how to hunt for fossils in the desert and find shells on the beach. Although my grandma grew up with no access to the wilderness, she admired the green open areas of urban cemeteries. In college, she studied geology and hiked in the High Sierras. For years, she’s been an advocate for conserving wildlife habitat and open spaces.

Our priorities may seem different, but it all comes down to basic human needs. We all desire a purpose, strive to be happy, and need to be loved. Like Nancy Hill says in the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” it can be hard to decipher what is important in life. I believe that the constant search for satisfaction and meaning is the only thing everyone has in common. We all want to know what matters, and we walk around this confusing world trying to find it. The lessons I’ve learned from my grandma about forging connections, caring for my body, and getting out in the world inspire me to live my life my way before it’s gone.

Rory Leyva is a seventh-grader from Portland, Oregon. Rory skates for the Rosebuds All-Stars roller derby team. She loves listening to music and hanging out with her friends.

High School Winner

Praethong Klomsum

  Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, Calif.

Time Only Moves Forward

Sandra Hernandez gazed at the tiny house while her mother’s gentle hands caressed her shoulders. It wasn’t much, especially for a family of five. This was 1960, she was 17, and her family had just moved to Culver City.

Flash forward to 2019. Sandra sits in a rocking chair, knitting a blanket for her latest grandchild, in the same living room. Sandra remembers working hard to feed her eight children. She took many different jobs before settling behind the cash register at a Japanese restaurant called Magos. “It was a struggle, and my husband Augustine, was planning to join the military at that time, too.”

In the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” author Nancy Hill states that one of the most important things is “…connecting with others in general, but in particular with those who have lived long lives.” Sandra feels similarly. It’s been hard for Sandra to keep in contact with her family, which leaves her downhearted some days. “It’s important to maintain that connection you have with your family, not just next-door neighbors you talk to once a month.”

Despite her age, Sandra is a daring woman. Taking risks is important to her, and she’ll try anything—from skydiving to hiking. Sandra has some regrets from the past, but nowadays, she doesn’t wonder about the “would have, could have, should haves.” She just goes for it with a smile.

Sandra thought harder about her last important thing, the blue and green blanket now finished and covering

her lap. “I’ve definitely lived a longer life than most, and maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I hope I can see the day my great-grandchildren are born.” She’s laughing, but her eyes look beyond what’s in front of her. Maybe she is reminiscing about the day she held her son for the first time or thinking of her grandchildren becoming parents. I thank her for her time and she waves it off, offering me a styrofoam cup of lemonade before I head for the bus station.

The bus is sparsely filled. A voice in my head reminds me to finish my 10-page history research paper before spring break. I take a window seat and pull out my phone and earbuds. My playlist is already on shuffle, and I push away thoughts of that dreaded paper. Music has been a constant in my life—from singing my lungs out in kindergarten to Barbie’s “I Need To Know,” to jamming out to Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in sixth grade, to BTS’s “Intro: Never Mind” comforting me when I’m at my lowest. Music is my magic shop, a place where I can trade away my fears for calm.

I’ve always been afraid of doing something wrong—not finishing my homework or getting a C when I can do better. When I was 8, I wanted to be like the big kids. As I got older, I realized that I had exchanged my childhood longing for the 48 pack of crayons for bigger problems, balancing grades, a social life, and mental stability—all at once. I’m going to get older whether I like it or not, so there’s no point forcing myself to grow up faster.  I’m learning to live in the moment.

The bus is approaching my apartment, where I know my comfy bed and a home-cooked meal from my mom are waiting. My mom is hard-working, confident, and very stubborn. I admire her strength of character. She always keeps me in line, even through my rebellious phases.

My best friend sends me a text—an update on how broken her laptop is. She is annoying. She says the stupidest things and loves to state the obvious. Despite this, she never fails to make me laugh until my cheeks feel numb. The rest of my friends are like that too—loud, talkative, and always brightening my day. Even friends I stopped talking to have a place in my heart. Recently, I’ve tried to reconnect with some of them. This interview was possible because a close friend from sixth grade offered to introduce me to Sandra, her grandmother.  

I’m decades younger than Sandra, so my view of what’s important isn’t as broad as hers, but we share similar values, with friends and family at the top. I have a feeling that when Sandra was my age, she used to love music, too. Maybe in a few decades, when I’m sitting in my rocking chair, drawing in my sketchbook, I’ll remember this article and think back fondly to the days when life was simple.

Praethong Klomsum is a tenth-grader at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California.  Praethong has a strange affinity for rhyme games and is involved in her school’s dance team. She enjoys drawing and writing, hoping to impact people willing to listen to her thoughts and ideas.

University Winner

Emily Greenbaum

Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 

The Life-Long War

Every morning we open our eyes, ready for a new day. Some immediately turn to their phones and social media. Others work out or do yoga. For a certain person, a deep breath and the morning sun ground him. He hears the clink-clank of his wife cooking low sodium meat for breakfast—doctor’s orders! He sees that the other side of the bed is already made, the dogs are no longer in the room, and his clothes are set out nicely on the loveseat.

Today, though, this man wakes up to something different: faded cream walls and jello. This person, my hero, is Master Chief Petty Officer Roger James.

I pulled up my chair close to Roger’s vinyl recliner so I could hear him above the noise of the beeping dialysis machine. I noticed Roger would occasionally glance at his wife Susan with sparkly eyes when he would recall memories of the war or their grandkids. He looked at Susan like she walked on water.

Roger James served his country for thirty years. Now, he has enlisted in another type of war. He suffers from a rare blood cancer—the result of the wars he fought in. Roger has good and bad days. He says, “The good outweighs the bad, so I have to be grateful for what I have on those good days.”

When Roger retired, he never thought the effects of the war would reach him. The once shallow wrinkles upon his face become deeper, as he tells me, “It’s just cancer. Others are suffering from far worse. I know I’ll make it.”

Like Nancy Hill did in her article “Three Things that Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” I asked Roger, “What are the three most important things to you?” James answered, “My wife Susan, my grandkids, and church.”

Roger and Susan served together in the Vietnam war. She was a nurse who treated his cuts and scrapes one day. I asked Roger why he chose Susan. He said, “Susan told me to look at her while she cleaned me up. ‘This may sting, but don’t be a baby.’ When I looked into her eyes, I felt like she was looking into my soul, and I didn’t want her to leave. She gave me this sense of home. Every day I wake up, she makes me feel the same way, and I fall in love with her all over again.”

Roger and Susan have two kids and four grandkids, with great-grandchildren on the way. He claims that his grandkids give him the youth that he feels slowly escaping from his body. This adoring grandfather is energized by coaching t-ball and playing evening card games with the grandkids.

The last thing on his list was church. His oldest daughter married a pastor. Together they founded a church. Roger said that the connection between his faith and family is important to him because it gave him a reason to want to live again. I learned from Roger that when you’re across the ocean, you tend to lose sight of why you are fighting. When Roger returned, he didn’t have the will to live. Most days were a struggle, adapting back into a society that lacked empathy for the injuries, pain, and psychological trauma carried by returning soldiers. Church changed that for Roger and gave him a sense of purpose.

When I began this project, my attitude was to just get the assignment done. I never thought I could view Master Chief Petty Officer Roger James as more than a role model, but he definitely changed my mind. It’s as if Roger magically lit a fire inside of me and showed me where one’s true passions should lie. I see our similarities and embrace our differences. We both value family and our own connections to home—his home being church and mine being where I can breathe the easiest.

Master Chief Petty Officer Roger James has shown me how to appreciate what I have around me and that every once in a while, I should step back and stop to smell the roses. As we concluded the interview, amidst squeaky clogs and the stale smell of bleach and bedpans, I looked to Roger, his kind, tired eyes, and weathered skin, with a deeper sense of admiration, knowing that his values still run true, no matter what he faces.

Emily Greenbaum is a senior at Kent State University, graduating with a major in Conflict Management and minor in Geography. Emily hopes to use her major to facilitate better conversations, while she works in the Washington, D.C. area.  

Powerful Voice Winner

Amanda Schwaben

Wise Words From Winnie the Pooh

As I read through Nancy Hill’s article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” I was comforted by the similar responses given by both children and older adults. The emphasis participants placed on family, social connections, and love was not only heartwarming but hopeful. While the messages in the article filled me with warmth, I felt a twinge of guilt building within me. As a twenty-one-year-old college student weeks from graduation, I honestly don’t think much about the most important things in life. But if I was asked, I would most likely say family, friendship, and love. As much as I hate to admit it, I often find myself obsessing over achieving a successful career and finding a way to “save the world.”

A few weeks ago, I was at my family home watching the new Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin with my mom and younger sister. Well, I wasn’t really watching. I had my laptop in front of me, and I was aggressively typing up an assignment. Halfway through the movie, I realized I left my laptop charger in my car. I walked outside into the brisk March air. Instinctively, I looked up. The sky was perfectly clear, revealing a beautiful array of stars. When my twin sister and I were in high school, we would always take a moment to look up at the sparkling night sky before we came into the house after soccer practice.

I think that was the last time I stood in my driveway and gazed at the stars. I did not get the laptop charger from

my car; instead, I turned around and went back inside. I shut my laptop and watched the rest of the movie. My twin sister loves Winnie the Pooh. So much so that my parents got her a stuffed animal version of him for Christmas. While I thought he was adorable and a token of my childhood, I did not really understand her obsession. However, it was clear to me after watching the movie. Winnie the Pooh certainly had it figured out. He believed that the simple things in life were the most important: love, friendship, and having fun.

I thought about asking my mom right then what the three most important things were to her, but I decided not to. I just wanted to be in the moment. I didn’t want to be doing homework. It was a beautiful thing to just sit there and be present with my mom and sister.

I did ask her, though, a couple of weeks later. Her response was simple.  All she said was family, health, and happiness. When she told me this, I imagined Winnie the Pooh smiling. I think he would be proud of that answer.

I was not surprised by my mom’s reply. It suited her perfectly. I wonder if we relearn what is most important when we grow older—that the pressure to be successful subsides. Could it be that valuing family, health, and happiness is what ends up saving the world?

Amanda Schwaben is a graduating senior from Kent State University with a major in Applied Conflict Management. Amanda also has minors in Psychology and Interpersonal Communication. She hopes to further her education and focus on how museums not only preserve history but also promote peace.

Antonia Mills

Rachel Carson High School, Brooklyn, N.Y. 

Decoding The Butterfly

For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must first digest itself. The caterpillar, overwhelmed by accumulating tissue, splits its skin open to form its protective shell, the chrysalis, and later becomes the pretty butterfly we all know and love. There are approximately 20,000 species of butterflies, and just as every species is different, so is the life of every butterfly. No matter how long and hard a caterpillar has strived to become the colorful and vibrant butterfly that we marvel at on a warm spring day, it does not live a long life. A butterfly can live for a year, six months, two weeks, and even as little as twenty-four hours.

I have often wondered if butterflies live long enough to be blissful of blue skies. Do they take time to feast upon the sweet nectar they crave, midst their hustling life of pollinating pretty flowers? Do they ever take a lull in their itineraries, or are they always rushing towards completing their four-stage metamorphosis? Has anyone asked the butterfly, “Who are you?” instead of “What are you”? Or, How did you get here, on my windowsill?  How did you become ‘you’?

Humans are similar to butterflies. As a caterpillar

Suzanna Ruby/Getty Images

becomes a butterfly, a baby becomes an elder. As a butterfly soars through summer skies, an elder watches summer skies turn into cold winter nights and back toward summer skies yet again.  And as a butterfly flits slowly by the porch light, a passerby makes assumptions about the wrinkled, slow-moving elder, who is sturdier than he appears. These creatures are not seen for who they are—who they were—because people have “better things to do” or they are too busy to ask, “How are you”?

Our world can be a lonely place. Pressured by expectations, haunted by dreams, overpowered by weakness, and drowned out by lofty goals, we tend to forget ourselves—and others. Rather than hang onto the strands of our diminishing sanity, we might benefit from listening to our elders. Many elders have experienced setbacks in their young lives. Overcoming hardship and surviving to old age is wisdom that they carry.  We can learn from them—and can even make their day by taking the time to hear their stories.  

Nancy Hill, who wrote the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” was right: “We live among such remarkable people, yet few know their stories.” I know a lot about my grandmother’s life, and it isn’t as serene as my own. My grandmother, Liza, who cooks every day, bakes bread on holidays for our neighbors, brings gifts to her doctor out of the kindness of her heart, and makes conversation with neighbors even though she is isn’t fluent in English—Russian is her first language—has struggled all her life. Her mother, Anna, a single parent, had tuberculosis, and even though she had an inviolable spirit, she was too frail to care for four children. She passed away when my grandmother was sixteen, so my grandmother and her siblings spent most of their childhood in an orphanage. My grandmother got married at nineteen to my grandfather, Pinhas. He was a man who loved her more than he loved himself and was a godsend to every person he met. Liza was—and still is—always quick to do what was best for others, even if that person treated her poorly. My grandmother has lived with physical pain all her life, yet she pushed herself to climb heights that she wasn’t ready for. Against all odds, she has lived to tell her story to people who are willing to listen. And I always am.

I asked my grandmother, “What are three things most important to you?” Her answer was one that I already expected: One, for everyone to live long healthy lives. Two, for you to graduate from college. Three, for you to always remember that I love you.

What may be basic to you means the world to my grandmother. She just wants what she never had the chance to experience: a healthy life, an education, and the chance to express love to the people she values. The three things that matter most to her may be so simple and ordinary to outsiders, but to her, it is so much more. And who could take that away?

Antonia Mills was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and attends Rachel Carson High School.  Antonia enjoys creative activities, including writing, painting, reading, and baking. She hopes to pursue culinary arts professionally in the future. One of her favorite quotes is, “When you start seeing your worth, you’ll find it harder to stay around people who don’t.” -Emily S.P.  

  Powerful Voice Winner

   Isaac Ziemba

Odyssey Multiage Program, Bainbridge Island, Wash. 

This Former State Trooper Has His Priorities Straight: Family, Climate Change, and Integrity

I have a personal connection to people who served in the military and first responders. My uncle is a first responder on the island I live on, and my dad retired from the Navy. That was what made a man named Glen Tyrell, a state trooper for 25 years, 2 months and 9 days, my first choice to interview about what three things matter in life. In the YES! Magazine article “The Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” I learned that old and young people have a great deal in common. I know that’s true because Glen and I care about a lot of the same things.

For Glen, family is at the top of his list of important things. “My wife was, and is, always there for me. My daughters mean the world to me, too, but Penny is my partner,” Glen said. I can understand why Glen’s wife is so important to him. She’s family. Family will always be there for you.

Glen loves his family, and so do I with all my heart. My dad especially means the world to me. He is my top supporter and tells me that if I need help, just “say the word.” When we are fishing or crabbing, sometimes I

think, what if these times were erased from my memory? I wouldn’t be able to describe the horrible feeling that would rush through my mind, and I’m sure that Glen would feel the same about his wife.

My uncle once told me that the world is always going to change over time. It’s what the world has turned out to be that worries me. Both Glen and I are extremely concerned about climate change and the effect that rising temperatures have on animals and their habitats. We’re driving them to extinction. Some people might say, “So what? Animals don’t pay taxes or do any of the things we do.” What we are doing to them is like the Black Death times 100.

Glen is also frustrated by how much plastic we use and where it ends up. He would be shocked that an explorer recently dived to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean—seven miles!— and discovered a plastic bag and candy wrappers. Glen told me that, unfortunately, his generation did the damage and my generation is here to fix it. We need to take better care of Earth because if we don’t, we, as a species, will have failed.

Both Glen and I care deeply for our families and the earth, but for our third important value, I chose education and Glen chose integrity. My education is super important to me because without it, I would be a blank slate. I wouldn’t know how to figure out problems. I wouldn’t be able to tell right from wrong. I wouldn’t understand the Bill of Rights. I would be stuck. Everyone should be able to go to school, no matter where they’re from or who they are.  It makes me angry and sad to think that some people, especially girls, get shot because they are trying to go to school. I understand how lucky I am.

Integrity is sacred to Glen—I could tell by the serious tone of Glen’s voice when he told me that integrity was the code he lived by as a former state trooper. He knew that he had the power to change a person’s life, and he was committed to not abusing that power.  When Glen put someone under arrest—and my uncle says the same—his judgment and integrity were paramount. “Either you’re right or you’re wrong.” You can’t judge a person by what you think, you can only judge a person from what you know.”

I learned many things about Glen and what’s important in life, but there is one thing that stands out—something Glen always does and does well. Glen helps people. He did it as a state trooper, and he does it in our school, where he works on construction projects. Glen told me that he believes that our most powerful tools are writing and listening to others. I think those tools are important, too, but I also believe there are other tools to help solve many of our problems and create a better future: to be compassionate, to create caring relationships, and to help others. Just like Glen Tyrell does each and every day.

Isaac Ziemba is in seventh grade at the Odyssey Multiage Program on a small island called Bainbridge near Seattle, Washington. Isaac’s favorite subject in school is history because he has always been interested in how the past affects the future. In his spare time, you can find Isaac hunting for crab with his Dad, looking for artifacts around his house with his metal detector, and having fun with his younger cousin, Conner.     

Lily Hersch

 The Crest Academy, Salida, Colo.

The Phone Call

Dear Grandpa,

In my short span of life—12 years so far—you’ve taught me a lot of important life lessons that I’ll always have with me. Some of the values I talk about in this writing I’ve learned from you.

Dedicated to my Gramps.

In the YES! Magazine article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age,” author and photographer Nancy Hill asked people to name the three things that mattered most to them. After reading the essay prompt for the article, I immediately knew who I wanted to interview: my grandpa Gil.      

My grandpa was born on January 25, 1942. He lived in a minuscule tenement in The Bronx with his mother,

father, and brother. His father wasn’t around much, and, when he was, he was reticent and would snap occasionally, revealing his constrained mental pain. My grandpa says this happened because my great grandfather did not have a father figure in his life. His mother was a classy, sharp lady who was the head secretary at a local police district station. My grandpa and his brother Larry did not care for each other. Gramps said he was very close to his mother, and Larry wasn’t. Perhaps Larry was envious for what he didn’t have.

Decades after little to no communication with his brother, my grandpa decided to spontaneously visit him in Florida, where he resided with his wife. Larry was taken aback at the sudden reappearance of his brother and told him to leave. Since then, the two brothers have not been in contact. My grandpa doesn’t even know if Larry is alive.         

My grandpa is now a retired lawyer, married to my wonderful grandma, and living in a pretty house with an ugly dog named BoBo.

So, what’s important to you, Gramps?

He paused a second, then replied, “Family, kindness, and empathy.”

“Family, because it’s my family. It’s important to stay connected with your family. My brother, father, and I never connected in the way I wished, and sometimes I contemplated what could’ve happened.  But you can’t change the past. So, that’s why family’s important to me.”

Family will always be on my “Top Three Most Important Things” list, too. I can’t imagine not having my older brother, Zeke, or my grandma in my life. I wonder how other kids feel about their families? How do kids trapped and separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border feel?  What about orphans? Too many questions, too few answers.

“Kindness, because growing up and not seeing a lot of kindness made me realize how important it is to have that in the world. Kindness makes the world go round.”

What is kindness? Helping my brother, Eli, who has Down syndrome, get ready in the morning? Telling people what they need to hear, rather than what they want to hear? Maybe, for now, I’ll put wisdom, not kindness, on my list.

“Empathy, because of all the killings and shootings [in this country.] We also need to care for people—people who are not living in as good circumstances as I have. Donald Trump and other people I’ve met have no empathy. Empathy is very important.”

Empathy is something I’ve felt my whole life. It’ll always be important to me like it is important to my grandpa. My grandpa shows his empathy when he works with disabled children. Once he took a disabled child to a Christina Aguilera concert because that child was too young to go by himself. The moments I feel the most empathy are when Eli gets those looks from people. Seeing Eli wonder why people stare at him like he’s a freak makes me sad, and annoyed that they have the audacity to stare.

After this 2 minute and 36-second phone call, my grandpa has helped me define what’s most important to me at this time in my life: family, wisdom, and empathy. Although these things are important now, I realize they can change and most likely will.

When I’m an old woman, I envision myself scrambling through a stack of storage boxes and finding this paper. Perhaps after reading words from my 12-year-old self, I’ll ask myself “What’s important to me?”

Lily Hersch is a sixth-grader at Crest Academy in Salida, Colorado. Lily is an avid indoorsman, finding joy in competitive spelling, art, and of course, writing. She does not like Swiss cheese.

  “Tell It Like It Is” Interview Winner

Jonas Buckner

KIPP: Gaston College Preparatory, Gaston, N.C.

Lessons My Nana Taught Me

I walked into the house. In the other room, I heard my cousin screaming at his game. There were a lot of Pioneer Woman dishes everywhere. The room had the television on max volume. The fan in the other room was on. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to learn something powerful.

I was in my Nana’s house, and when I walked in, she said, “Hey Monkey Butt.”

I said, “Hey Nana.”

Before the interview, I was talking to her about what I was gonna interview her on. Also, I had asked her why I might have wanted to interview her, and she responded with, “Because you love me, and I love you too.”

Now, it was time to start the interview. The first

question I asked was the main and most important question ever: “What three things matter most to you and you only?”

She thought of it very thoughtfully and responded with, “My grandchildren, my children, and my health.”

Then, I said, “OK, can you please tell me more about your health?”

She responded with, “My health is bad right now. I have heart problems, blood sugar, and that’s about it.” When she said it, she looked at me and smiled because she loved me and was happy I chose her to interview.

I replied with, “K um, why is it important to you?”

She smiled and said, “Why is it…Why is my health important? Well, because I want to live a long time and see my grandchildren grow up.”

I was scared when she said that, but she still smiled. I was so happy, and then I said, “Has your health always been important to you.”

She responded with “Nah.”

Then, I asked, “Do you happen to have a story to help me understand your reasoning?”

She said, “No, not really.”

Now we were getting into the next set of questions. I said, “Remember how you said that your grandchildren matter to you? Can you please tell me why they matter to you?”

Then, she responded with, “So I can spend time with them, play with them, and everything.”

Next, I asked the same question I did before: “Have you always loved your grandchildren?” 

She responded with, “Yes, they have always been important to me.”

Then, the next two questions I asked she had no response to at all. She was very happy until I asked, “Why do your children matter most to you?”

She had a frown on and responded, “My daughter Tammy died a long time ago.”

Then, at this point, the other questions were answered the same as the other ones. When I left to go home I was thinking about how her answers were similar to mine. She said health, and I care about my health a lot, and I didn’t say, but I wanted to. She also didn’t have answers for the last two questions on each thing, and I was like that too.

The lesson I learned was that no matter what, always keep pushing because even though my aunt or my Nana’s daughter died, she kept on pushing and loving everyone. I also learned that everything should matter to us. Once again, I chose to interview my Nana because she matters to me, and I know when she was younger she had a lot of things happen to her, so I wanted to know what she would say. The point I’m trying to make is that be grateful for what you have and what you have done in life.

Jonas Buckner is a sixth-grader at KIPP: Gaston College Preparatory in Gaston, North Carolina. Jonas’ favorite activities are drawing, writing, math, piano, and playing AltSpace VR. He found his passion for writing in fourth grade when he wrote a quick autobiography. Jonas hopes to become a horror writer someday.

From The Author: Responses to Student Winners

Dear Emily, Isaac, Antonia, Rory, Praethong, Amanda, Lily, and Jonas,

Your thought-provoking essays sent my head spinning. The more I read, the more impressed I was with the depth of thought, beauty of expression, and originality. It left me wondering just how to capture all of my reactions in a single letter. After multiple false starts, I’ve landed on this: I will stick to the theme of three most important things.

The three things I found most inspirational about your essays:

You listened.

You connected.

We live in troubled times. Tensions mount between countries, cultures, genders, religious beliefs, and generations. If we fail to find a way to understand each other, to see similarities between us, the future will be fraught with increased hostility.

You all took critical steps toward connecting with someone who might not value the same things you do by asking a person who is generations older than you what matters to them. Then, you listened to their answers. You saw connections between what is important to them and what is important to you. Many of you noted similarities, others wondered if your own list of the three most important things would change as you go through life. You all saw the validity of the responses you received and looked for reasons why your interviewees have come to value what they have.

It is through these things—asking, listening, and connecting—that we can begin to bridge the differences in experiences and beliefs that are currently dividing us.

Individual observations

Each one of you made observations that all of us, regardless of age or experience, would do well to keep in mind. I chose one quote from each person and trust those reading your essays will discover more valuable insights.

“Our priorities may seem different, but they come back to basic human needs. We all desire a purpose, strive to be happy, and work to make a positive impact.” 

“You can’t judge a person by what you think , you can only judge a person by what you know .”

Emily (referencing your interviewee, who is battling cancer):

“Master Chief Petty Officer James has shown me how to appreciate what I have around me.”

Lily (quoting your grandfather):

“Kindness makes the world go round.”

“Everything should matter to us.”

Praethong (quoting your interviewee, Sandra, on the importance of family):

“It’s important to always maintain that connection you have with each other, your family, not just next-door neighbors you talk to once a month.”

“I wonder if maybe we relearn what is most important when we grow older. That the pressure to be successful subsides and that valuing family, health, and happiness is what ends up saving the world.”

“Listen to what others have to say. Listen to the people who have already experienced hardship. You will learn from them and you can even make their day by giving them a chance to voice their thoughts.”

I end this letter to you with the hope that you never stop asking others what is most important to them and that you to continue to take time to reflect on what matters most to you…and why. May you never stop asking, listening, and connecting with others, especially those who may seem to be unlike you. Keep writing, and keep sharing your thoughts and observations with others, for your ideas are awe-inspiring.

I also want to thank the more than 1,000 students who submitted essays. Together, by sharing what’s important to us with others, especially those who may believe or act differently, we can fill the world with joy, peace, beauty, and love.

We received many outstanding essays for the Winter 2019 Student Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye:

Whether it is a painting on a milky canvas with watercolors or pasting photos onto a scrapbook with her granddaughters, it is always a piece of artwork to her. She values the things in life that keep her in the moment, while still exploring things she may not have initially thought would bring her joy.

—Ondine Grant-Krasno, Immaculate Heart Middle School, Los Angeles, Calif.

“Ganas”… It means “desire” in Spanish. My ganas is fueled by my family’s belief in me. I cannot and will not fail them. 

—Adan Rios, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

I hope when I grow up I can have the love for my kids like my grandma has for her kids. She makes being a mother even more of a beautiful thing than it already is.

—Ashley Shaw, Columbus City Prep School for Girls, Grove City, Ohio

You become a collage of little pieces of your friends and family. They also encourage you to be the best you can be. They lift you up onto the seat of your bike, they give you the first push, and they don’t hesitate to remind you that everything will be alright when you fall off and scrape your knee.

— Cecilia Stanton, Bellafonte Area Middle School, Bellafonte, Pa.

Without good friends, I wouldn’t know what I would do to endure the brutal machine of public education.

—Kenneth Jenkins, Garrison Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.

My dog, as ridiculous as it may seem, is a beautiful example of what we all should aspire to be. We should live in the moment, not stress, and make it our goal to lift someone’s spirits, even just a little.

—Kate Garland, Immaculate Heart Middle School, Los Angeles, Calif. 

I strongly hope that every child can spare more time to accompany their elderly parents when they are struggling, and moving forward, and give them more care and patience. so as to truly achieve the goal of “you accompany me to grow up, and I will accompany you to grow old.”

—Taiyi Li, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

I have three cats, and they are my brothers and sisters. We share a special bond that I think would not be possible if they were human. Since they do not speak English, we have to find other ways to connect, and I think that those other ways can be more powerful than language.

—Maya Dombroskie, Delta Program Middle School, Boulsburg, Pa.

We are made to love and be loved. To have joy and be relational. As a member of the loneliest generation in possibly all of history, I feel keenly aware of the need for relationships and authentic connection. That is why I decided to talk to my grandmother.

—Luke Steinkamp, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

After interviewing my grandma and writing my paper, I realized that as we grow older, the things that are important to us don’t change, what changes is why those things are important to us.

—Emily Giffer, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

The media works to marginalize elders, often isolating them and their stories, and the wealth of knowledge that comes with their additional years of lived experiences. It also undermines the depth of children’s curiosity and capacity to learn and understand. When the worlds of elders and children collide, a classroom opens.

—Cristina Reitano, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.

My values, although similar to my dad, only looked the same in the sense that a shadow is similar to the object it was cast on.

—Timofey Lisenskiy, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, Calif.

I can release my anger through writing without having to take it out on someone. I can escape and be a different person; it feels good not to be myself for a while. I can make up my own characters, so I can be someone different every day, and I think that’s pretty cool.

—Jasua Carillo, Wellness, Business, and Sports School, Woodburn, Ore. 

Notice how all the important things in his life are people: the people who he loves and who love him back. This is because “people are more important than things like money or possessions, and families are treasures,” says grandpa Pat. And I couldn’t agree more.

—Brody Hartley, Garrison Middle School, Walla Walla, Wash.  

Curiosity for other people’s stories could be what is needed to save the world.

—Noah Smith, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

Peace to me is a calm lake without a ripple in sight. It’s a starry night with a gentle breeze that pillows upon your face. It’s the absence of arguments, fighting, or war. It’s when egos stop working against each other and finally begin working with each other. Peace is free from fear, anxiety, and depression. To me, peace is an important ingredient in the recipe of life.

—JP Bogan, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

From A Teacher

Charles Sanderson

Wellness, Business and Sports School, Woodburn, Ore. 

The Birthday Gift

I’ve known Jodelle for years, watching her grow from a quiet and timid twelve-year-old to a young woman who just returned from India, where she played Kabaddi, a kind of rugby meets Red Rover.

One of my core beliefs as an educator is to show up for the things that matter to kids, so I go to their games, watch their plays, and eat the strawberry jam they make for the county fair. On this occasion, I met Jodelle at a robotics competition to watch her little sister Abby compete. Think Nerd Paradise: more hats made from traffic cones than Golden State Warrior ball caps, more unicorn capes than Nike swooshes, more fanny packs with Legos than clutches with eyeliner.

We started chatting as the crowd chanted and waved six-foot flags for teams like Mystic Biscuits, Shrek, and everyone’s nemesis The Mean Machine. Apparently, when it’s time for lunch at a robotics competition, they don’t mess around. The once-packed gym was left to Jodelle and me, and we kept talking and talking. I eventually asked her about the three things that matter to her most.

She told me about her mom, her sister, and her addiction—to horses. I’ve read enough of her writing to know that horses were her drug of choice and her mom and sister were her support network.

I learned about her desire to become a teacher and how hours at the barn with her horse, Heart, recharge her when she’s exhausted. At one point, our rambling conversation turned to a topic I’ve known far too well—her father.

Later that evening, I received an email from Jodelle, and she had a lot to say. One line really struck me: “In so many movies, I have seen a dad wanting to protect his daughter from the world, but I’ve only understood the scene cognitively. Yesterday, I felt it.”

Long ago, I decided that I would never be a dad. I had seen movies with fathers and daughters, and for me, those movies might as well have been Star Wars, ET, or Alien—worlds filled with creatures I’d never know. However, over the years, I’ve attended Jodelle’s parent-teacher conferences, gone to her graduation, and driven hours to watch her ride Heart at horse shows. Simply, I showed up. I listened. I supported.

Jodelle shared a series of dad poems, as well. I had read the first two poems in their original form when Jodelle was my student. The revised versions revealed new graphic details of her past. The third poem, however, was something entirely different.

She called the poems my early birthday present. When I read the lines “You are my father figure/Who I look up to/Without being looked down on,” I froze for an instant and had to reread the lines. After fifty years of consciously deciding not to be a dad, I was seen as one—and it felt incredible. Jodelle’s poem and recognition were two of the best presents I’ve ever received.

I  know that I was the language arts teacher that Jodelle needed at the time, but her poem revealed things I never knew I taught her: “My father figure/ Who taught me/ That listening is for observing the world/ That listening is for learning/Not obeying/Writing is for connecting/Healing with others.”

Teaching is often a thankless job, one that frequently brings more stress and anxiety than joy and hope. Stress erodes my patience. Anxiety curtails my ability to enter each interaction with every student with the grace they deserve. However, my time with Jodelle reminds me of the importance of leaning in and listening.

In the article “Three Things That Matter Most in Youth and Old Age” by Nancy Hill, she illuminates how we “live among such remarkable people, yet few know their stories.” For the last twenty years, I’ve had the privilege to work with countless of these “remarkable people,” and I’ve done my best to listen, and, in so doing, I hope my students will realize what I’ve known for a long time; their voices matter and deserve to be heard, but the voices of their tias and abuelitos and babushkas are equally important. When we take the time to listen, I believe we do more than affirm the humanity of others; we affirm our own as well.

Charles Sanderson has grounded his nineteen-year teaching career in a philosophy he describes as “Mirror, Window, Bridge.” Charles seeks to ensure all students see themselves, see others, and begin to learn the skills to build bridges of empathy, affinity, and understanding between communities and cultures that may seem vastly different. He proudly teaches at the Wellness, Business and Sports School in Woodburn, Oregon, a school and community that brings him joy and hope on a daily basis.

From   The Author: Response to Charles Sanderson

Dear Charles Sanderson,

Thank you for submitting an essay of your own in addition to encouraging your students to participate in YES! Magazine’s essay contest.

Your essay focused not on what is important to you, but rather on what is important to one of your students. You took what mattered to her to heart, acting upon it by going beyond the school day and creating a connection that has helped fill a huge gap in her life. Your efforts will affect her far beyond her years in school. It is clear that your involvement with this student is far from the only time you have gone beyond the classroom, and while you are not seeking personal acknowledgment, I cannot help but applaud you.

In an ideal world, every teacher, every adult, would show the same interest in our children and adolescents that you do. By taking the time to listen to what is important to our youth, we can help them grow into compassionate, caring adults, capable of making our world a better place.

Your concerted efforts to guide our youth to success not only as students but also as human beings is commendable. May others be inspired by your insights, concerns, and actions. You define excellence in teaching.

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• Essay Editor

Decision Making in Life

List of Essays

Personal decision making, defining our identities, charting life trajectories, embracing accountability, strategic planning, problem solving, risk management, the decision-making process.

• The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Decision Makingt

Self-Regulation

Social awareness, conflict resolution.

Life is a series of decisions, some small and seemingly inconsequential, others monumental and life-altering. Whether we're selecting a career path, choosing a life partner, or merely deciding on dinner, each choice shapes our life's trajectory. In this "decision making in life" essay, we'll delve into the importance of making informed decisions, understanding our identities, and the role of emotional intelligence in shaping our choices.

Every person stands at the crossroads of multiple decisions daily. The essence of personal decision-making lies in understanding who we are, what drives us, and what we value. When we possess this knowledge, we can align our choices with our intrinsic motivations, ensuring that our decisions are authentic and fulfilling.

Our identities are a fusion of our experiences, beliefs, values, and aspirations. Every decision we make, whether consciously or subconsciously, is rooted in these facets of our identity. Recognizing the core elements of our identity empowers us to make choices that resonate with our true selves, leading to a more fulfilled life.

The decisions we make are like waypoints on a map, guiding us on our life's journey. With each choice, we determine our direction, sometimes altering our path dramatically or subtly refining our route. By making informed, deliberate choices, we can ensure that our trajectory aligns with our goals and aspirations.

Decision-making is an act of responsibility. Recognizing the importance of decision-making in life means accepting that our choices have consequences. Embracing this accountability can empower us to make more informed, thoughtful decisions, considering not only immediate implications but long-term effects as well.

Strategic planning involves looking ahead, setting goals, and determining the best course of action to achieve those objectives. By employing strategic thinking in our personal lives, we can anticipate potential challenges, optimize opportunities, and navigate the intricate maze of life with foresight and purpose.

Every decision stems from a desire to solve a problem or seize an opportunity. Effective problem-solving skills enable us to dissect issues, identify potential solutions, and select the optimal course of action.

Life is unpredictable. While we can't foresee every outcome, we can manage potential risks. Assessing the pros and cons of a decision and anticipating potential pitfalls is essential. Risk management doesn't mean avoiding risks but making informed decisions, understanding potential outcomes, and being prepared for them.

Making a decision is a systematic process, and understanding its stages can help us make more informed choices.

• Identifying the Problem or Opportunity : Recognize the need for a decision. Is there a problem to solve or an opportunity to exploit?
• Gathering Information : Equip yourself with relevant facts, data, and insights. The better informed you are, the clearer your perspective will be.
• Evaluating Options : Weigh the pros and cons of each potential decision. Consider the implications of each choice and how they align with your values and goals.
• Making the Decision : After thorough evaluation, choose the best course of action.
• Reflecting and Learning : After a decision is made, assess the outcome. Were the results as expected? What lessons can be drawn for future decisions?

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Decision Making

Emotional intelligence (EI) plays a pivotal role in shaping our decisions. Possessing a high EI means understanding and managing our emotions and recognizing those of others, facilitating better interpersonal interactions and informed personal decisions.

Individuals with a high EI can regulate their emotions, preventing them from making impulsive decisions. This self-regulation ensures that choices are based on logic and reason rather than fleeting emotions.

Understanding others' emotions and perspectives aids in making decisions that consider broader implications, especially when multiple parties are involved.

When faced with conflicting views or choices, those with high EI can navigate the situation, find common ground, and arrive at mutually beneficial decisions.

The "importance of decision making in life essay" cannot be understated, for it offers a window into the intricate web of choices that shape our existence. Through this essay on the importance of decision making, we comprehend the pivotal role these choices play in defining who we are and the paths we tread. The "importance of decision making in our life essay" lies not just in highlighting the weight of every choice, but in emphasizing the need for introspection, foresight, and emotional intelligence. To truly grasp the essence of this "essay on importance of decision making in life," one must reflect on one’s own life choices and their ramifications. For, as we come to understand the importance of decision making in our life essay, we learn to appreciate the delicate balance of logic, emotion, strategy, and instinct that drives each decision, large or small.

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Life Potential

7 ways to make critical life decisions and choices.

If you’re unhappy with the results in your life right now, making the effort to change your decisions starting today will be the key to creating the person you want to be and the life you want to have in the future.

Most people don’t know the profound effects of making life choices. Often, we go through life oblivious to what thoughts we are thinking and what actions we are taking. Every single decision we make shapes our current reality. It shapes who we are because we habitually follow through with the decisions we make without even realizing it.

Of course, changing your decisions is no easy feat. It takes an immense amount of effort, courage, and dedication. But if you don’t do this, you may end up living a life you don’t even like.

Now, let’s talk about the 7 ways you can go about making life-changing decisions.

My Life Choices: 7 Ways To Help Make Critical Decisions

Let’s talk about the 7 ways you can go about making life-changing decisions.

1. Realize the Power of Decision Making

Before you start deciding and wondering what your life choices are, you must understand what a decision does.

All life decisions that you make cause a chain of events. When you decide to pick up a cigarette to smoke it, that decision might result in you picking up another one later. After a day, you may have gone through a pack without knowing it. But if you decide not to smoke that first cigarette and decide every five minutes to focus your attention somewhere else when you get that craving, your cravings will eventually subside, and you will become smoke-free.

It comes down to making that very first decision of deciding whether or not to pick up that cigarette.

Each decision you make in life is linked to certain individual factors, such as personality, anxiety, and level of stress. [1] Be aware of your current situation to help make a choice when you feel yourself leaning into a habit.

2. Go With Your Gut

Oftentimes, we take too much time to make a decision because we’re afraid of what’s going to happen. As a result of this, we go through things like careful planning , deep analysis, and pros and cons before deciding. This is a very time-consuming process.

Instead, learn to trust your gut instinct . For the most part, your first instinct is usually the correct one or the one you truly want to go with.

Your gut instinct is a form of information processing, and scientists call it the “predictive processing framework.” This helps prepare the brain to deal with your situation the best way possible. [2]

Even if you end up making a mistake, going with your gut still makes you a more confident decision-maker compared to someone who takes all day to decide.

3. Carry Your Decision Out

What’s considered a real decision? It’s when you decide on something, which is carried out through action. It’s pointless to make a decision and have it play out in your head that has no follow through. That’s the same as not making a decision at all.

If you want to make real changes in life, you have to make it a habit to apply action to your decision until it’s completed. By going through this so many times, you will feel more confident with accomplishing the next decision that you have in mind.

4. Tell Others About Your Decisions

There’s something about telling other people what we’re going to do that makes us follow through.

Research proves that you are more likely to meet goals if you share them with people, especially those with a “higher status” than you. [3]

For example, for the longest time, I’ve been trying to become an early riser. Whenever I tried to use my willpower, waking up early without falling back asleep felt impossible. So what I did was I went to a forum and made the decision to tell people that I would wake up at 6 AM and stay up . Within two days, I accomplished this because I felt a moral obligation to follow through with my words even though I failed the first time.

Did people care? Probably not, but just the fact that there might be someone else out there seeing if you’re telling the truth will give you enough motivation to follow through with your decision.

5. Learn From Your Past Decisions

Even after I failed to follow through with my decision the first time I told people, I didn’t give up. I asked myself, “What can I do this time to make it work tomorrow?”

The truth is, you are going to mess up at times when it comes to making decisions. Instead of beating yourself up over it, learn something from it.

• Ask yourself, what was good about the decision I made?
• What was bad about it?
• What can I learn from it to make a better decision next time?

Remember, don’t put so much emphasis on short-term effects; instead, focus on the long-term effects.

6. Maintain a Flexible Approach

I know this might sound counter-intuitive, but making a decision doesn’t mean you can’t be open to other options.

One of the major reasons why people don’t achieve their goals is because the ones they set are unattainable. [4]

As much as you can, be objective. If you realize a goal is unattainable, change it to something more realistic.

For example, let’s say you decided to lose ten pounds by next month through cardio. If something comes up, you don’t have to just do cardio. You can be open to losing weight through different methods of dieting as long as it helps you reach your goal in the end.

Don’t be stubborn to seek out only one way of making a decision. Embrace any new knowledge that brings you closer to accomplishing your initial decision.

7. Have Fun Making Decisions

Finally, enjoy the process every time you make a choice. I know decision-making might not be the most fun thing to do, but when you do it often, it becomes a game of opportunity.

You’ll learn a lot about yourself, and you’ll become more confident in yourself and when around others.  Anything you decide to do from this point on can have a profound effect later on. Opportunities are always waiting for you. Examine the decisions that you currently have in the day.

Bonus: 4 Reminders In Making Life Choices

Learning how to make a big decision is no easy feat. Here are bonus tips to keep in mind when making life choices with confidence.

1. Take the Time to Reflect

Once in a while, wherever you are in life, take the time to either sit with pen and paper or be alone on a walk or somewhere quiet and ask yourself some questions.

Leonardo da Vinci reportedly would ask himself hundreds of questions. He would not necessarily answer his questions but pose them for consideration. The artist’s thinking can be dubbed interdisciplinary. This means that it is grounded in many aspects. [5]

This technique allows you to get past the initial surface thoughts to access the deep-rooted ideas that are causing the issues/obstacles and beliefs that are holding you back.

Ask yourself questions like these:

• What do I love about my job?
• What makes my life choices so important?
• What do I love about my life?
• Do I love living here?
• Do I feel like I make enough time for myself, and what do I like to do with my time?
• If I was to write down the emotions I experience each week, would I describe them as mostly positive, mostly negative, or a balance of both? What impacts that?
• How do I respond to criticism?
• Am I good at telling people what I think?
• What do I feel holds me back?
• What would I love to achieve but fear doing and why do I feel I fear it?

The more questions you can ask, the better. Remember, this is not about knowing the answers or answering according to what you know or trust you can do, so be honest with yourself.

2. Challenge Your Own Beliefs

Challenge yourself to ask if your beliefs serve you well or hinder your success and happiness.

Are your beliefs keeping you in a comfort zone, so you don’t have to face what you fear? Or do your beliefs challenge you to go for things even if you fear them a little?

Challenging beliefs help you to see, acknowledge and accept what your beliefs are doing to you. Once you can see, acknowledge, and accept your beliefs and their impact, you will be in a position to take responsibility for them and change. You can’t change permanently until you go through this process.

This will lead you to another very important reminder for us all. You are allowed to change paths.  

If you liked being a teacher or a graphic designer and now want to be a police officer or a journalist, that’s fine. It is scary to make changes and choose a different path but to help you do this, remember this question: If I agree to stay like this, then what am I agreeing to?

You don’t need to know how you will achieve it, but you need to know you want to do it.

3. Accept Disagreements

If you think you are confident to be yourself and share what you think, post an unpopular opinion on social media (not an offensive, derogatory comment, just something you don’t like.) I did this recently (I’m happy to connect so that when you give this a go, you can tag me), and asked people to share their unpopular opinions.

Nothing heavy.

I just posted that I don’t like a certain cooking programme that airs here in the UK – The Great British Bake Off . I just don’t get why you’d watch a bunch of people mixing up ingredients to make a cake and then watch three hyper-critical judges tell you your cake has a soggy bottom. While my post had lots of likes, laughs, and loves, not even a quarter of people that liked the post commented.

Within a week of that post, wherever I went, someone would say, “I saw that post, my unpopular view is…..” I asked all of these people, “Why didn’t you post your view on my post?” To which I heard replies like:

• “I didn’t want to offend anyone.
• “I can’t post like you do.”
• “It’s not appropriate to do that.”
• “It could damage my reputation.”
• “You know what people are like.”

Headline news folks, saying you don’t like Christmas jumpers or Elvis is not against the law. While some may not agree with you, ultimately, nice humans accept that with billions of people on the planet, we aren’t going to agree on everything.

4. Look Forward

People need to spend less time looking back at what has happened and spend more time planning where they want to go.

For example, I created a long list of everything that could need to be done to set up Person A’s business, then we broke that down into a timeline to enable them to see their priorities.

So many people try to get to the end of a to-do list, not appreciating there will always be something new on the to-do list.

It’s not about clearing the to-do list, it’s about owning it. And to do that, you need to have a clearly defined plan. Consider everything you could do to make a decision or powerful life choice, and then narrow that down to the absolute priorities.

Do not deviate, and lastly, only ever have three to five actions on your to-do list. Clear them, and you can add the next three to five.

Person A didn’t just set up her own business, it went from her kitchen table to her own offices with staff within 2 years! Spend less time looking back and wondering and more time focusing on what you want and creating the plan to get you there.

Final Thoughts

Some decisions in life are harder to make, but with these 7 pieces of advice, you can trust yourself more even during the process. Making a decision is the only way to move forward. So remember, any decision is better than none at all.

Tips to Making Critical Life Decisions and Choices

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What Are Life's Biggest Decisions?

New research reveals life’s most common big decisions..

Posted January 31, 2021 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

Every day you make thousands of decisions. Most of them are small and forgotten nearly as quickly as they’re made. Can you remember what you had for breakfast last Wednesday? However, every so often, you are faced with a decision that is neither inconsequential nor fleeting. Every so often you are faced with a big decision.

I have spent my career studying decisions. Most were of the small and forgotten variety. But a few years ago, I found myself amidst a number of big life decisions. It turned out that little of my research was helpful with these decisions. So, I began to ask people between the ages of 20 and 80 to tell me about their biggest life decisions.

What is a “big” decision?

A “big” decision is one in which you intentionally made a choice between two or more options knowing that the outcome would have a significant and often long-term impact for yourself or others. When asked to identify a big decision, two of the most frequent responses are “whether or not to get married” or “whether or not to have a child." These certainly fit the bill. What about the decision to attend a party where you happened to meet your future spouse? Not so much.

Given that you know big life decisions are coming it seems wise to get prepared. The question we’ll consider here is what will those big decisions be. I’ll answer this question first by describing the most common big life decisions, and second, by describing the most important big life decisions.

What are the most common big life decisions?

Some big decisions are very common. For example, the first big decision many people face is whether or not to go to university. Other big decisions are much more unique. In reading through thousands of different decisions, it was of primary importance to categorize them in a meaningful way. I identified nine different super-categories and fifty-eight different sub-categories.

The super-categories were: Career, Education , Family, Finances, Relationships, Relocation, Self-Destruction, Self-Development, and Other. The figure below shows the full list of sub-categories. These have been comprehensive enough that the “Other” category is rarely needed.

The first question of interest is which big decisions are the most common. Here are the top 20 most common big life decisions amongst all respondents as well as the percentage of respondents mentioning that decision at least once:

• Start a new job/position (or not) - 60%
• Get married (or not) - 59%
• Pursue a degree (or not) - 52%
• Have/adopt a child (or not) - 44%
• Buy a home (or not) - 37%
• Quit a job/position (or not) - 33%
• Move to a new state (or not) - 30%
• Choose where to study - 26%
• Get divorced (or not) - 24%
• Other - Family - 23%
• Other - Education - 23%
• Buy something (or not) - 23%
• Get a pet (or not) - 21%
• Begin a romantic relationship (or not) - 21%
• End romantic relationship (or not) - 20%
• Move to a new city (or not) - 18%
• Make a decision for your child (or not) - 18%
• Start a new business (or not) - 17%
• Care for a family member (or not) - 17%
• Get treatment/medicine (or not) - 15%

Of course, the most commonly mentioned big decisions depend on who you ask. The figure below shows the types of big decisions reported by different age groups.

What jumps out is that those who are younger are much more likely to indicate having made big decisions regarding education. We expect this because decisions about university tend to arise right out of high-school. By contrast, those who are older are much more likely to indicate having made big decisions regarding their career, including the final career decision of when to retire.

What are the biggest big life decisions?

The second question of interest is just how big these different decisions are. In the survey, I asked respondents to rate how big the decision felt at the time. Of the 20 most common big life decisions, the 10 considered biggest were:

• Get divorced (or not)
• Have/adopt a child (or not)
• Get married (or not)
• Move to a new state (or not)
• Make a decision for your child (or not)
• Buy a home (or not)
• End romantic relationship (or not)
• Other - Family
• Move to a new city (or not)
• Care for a family member (or not)

There were a couple of less common decisions that were also considered very big. Namely, the decision to end a life (or not) and the decision to accept/change sexuality (or not).

Stepping back, these results suggest that most people are trying to solve the same problems:

• What kind of education should I get?
• How should I earn a living?
• Where should I put down roots?
• What kind of family should I build?

There are a few important take-homes from this analysis. First, there is a lot of overlap in the reported biggest life decisions of people across demographic characteristics. This bodes well for those who are interested in making good decisions because much can be learned from the experience of others.

Second, big decisions are not limited to one or two areas of life. There are big decisions related to your education, career, relationships, family, finances, and where you live. Apart from education-related decisions, people of all ages agree that their biggest life decisions span all of these domains.

Finally, the biggest decisions are those that impact not just you but those around you. Getting married, getting divorced, and having a child all affect loved ones. As social beings, we often struggle to decide what is best not just for ourselves but those around us. It’s these kinds of decisions that we should reflect on the most.

The next post in this series is “ When do the Biggest Life Decisions Happen? ” In the meantime, if you'd like to see how your own big decisions compare to others, complete the survey yourself here and also check out the data.

Adrian R. Camilleri, Ph.D. , is a behavioral scientist who currently works at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School.

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Essay on Hardest Decision In Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on Hardest Decision In Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Hardest Decision In Life

Introduction.

Life is full of decisions. Some are easy, like choosing what to eat for breakfast. Others are hard, like deciding on a career path. The hardest decisions are often those that can change our lives forever.

What Makes a Decision Hard?

The role of fear.

Fear plays a big part in making a decision hard. We fear making the wrong choice and regretting it later. We fear the consequences of our decisions and how they will affect our lives.

Overcoming Fear

To overcome fear, we need to gather as much information as possible about the decision. We can talk to people who have faced similar decisions, research online, or seek professional advice.

250 Words Essay on Hardest Decision In Life

Understanding tough choices.

Life is like a journey filled with lots of turns, twists, and crossroads. At these crossroads, we often have to make decisions. Some are easy, while others can be really hard. The hardest decisions are the ones that can change our lives forever.

The Nature of Hard Decisions

Hard decisions often involve a lot of uncertainty. It’s like standing at a fork in the road, not knowing which path to take. We might have to choose between two things we love, or maybe decide to leave something behind. These decisions can make us feel scared, confused, and even lonely.

Examples of Hard Decisions

Let’s look at some examples. Choosing the right career can be a tough decision. We might love music, but also have a passion for science. Which path should we follow? Another hard decision could be about moving to a new place. We might be excited about the new opportunities, but also sad to leave our friends and family.

Dealing with Hard Decisions

So, how do we deal with hard decisions? First, it’s important to take time to think. We should weigh the pros and cons, and consider the consequences of each choice. Talking to someone we trust can also help. They can give us advice, or just listen when we need to share our feelings.

Learning from Decisions

Even though hard decisions can be scary, they also help us grow. Each choice we make teaches us something new about ourselves and the world around us. So, even if we make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world. We can always learn from it and move forward.

500 Words Essay on Hardest Decision In Life

What is a hard decision.

A hard decision is a choice that is tough to make. It often involves a situation where you have to pick one option out of many, and each option has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. These decisions can be about anything, from choosing which school to attend, to deciding whether to take a job offer or not. They are hard because they can change your life in big ways.

One of the hardest decisions you might face in life is choosing your career path. This is a big decision because it can shape your future. You might love to paint, but you also know that it can be hard to make a living as an artist. So, do you follow your passion or choose a more secure job?

How to Make Hard Decisions

Second, you can try to think about what is most important to you. What are your values? What are your goals? These can guide you in making your decision.

The Impact of Hard Decicisions

But hard decisions can also help you grow. They can teach you about yourself, about what you value, and about how to deal with tough situations. They can make you stronger, wiser, and more resilient.

In the end, everyone has to make hard decisions in life. They can be scary and stressful, but they are also a part of growing up. By gathering information, thinking about your values, and talking to people you trust, you can make these decisions with confidence. And no matter what happens, remember that every decision is a chance to learn and grow.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Decision Making Essay | Difference Between a Good Decision and a Bad Decision

October 18, 2021 by Prasanna

Decision Making Essay: Making decisions is an essential skill for many professions, but it’s also a skill that we need in our personal lives. We need to be able to make decisions not just for ourselves, but also for the people around us. The ability to make decisions is a skill that is mostly learned through experience. However, other ways to improve decision-making skills also exist – such as reading, researching, talking to other people as well as analyzing different sources of information.

Regardless, it is important to make decisions on your own. The first thing that you should do is to define the problem that you are trying to solve. You want to know why a decision is needed, what it will change about your life, and what’s important to you about the decision. After reviewing all of these factors, you should come up with some options for which way you want to go about solving the problem. In this essay, we shall explore the factors that influence the process of decision making as well as the repercussion of poor decision making.

You can also find more  Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Difference Between a Good Decision and a Bad Decision

One of the most important things to do when making decisions is to know the difference between a good decision and a bad decision. The primary difference between a good decision and a bad decision is the impact that it has on your life. As the name suggests, a good decision is one that has a positive impact on your life, while a bad decision will have a negative impact on your life.

Moreover, good decisions will usually lead to more opportunities. However, when you make bad decisions, it can have repercussions which are not immediately apparent, but can have long lasting consequences. To sum up, a good decision is one that achieves the desired goal. A bad decision is one that does not achieve the desired goal or achieves it in an undesirable way.

Why is Being Able to Make Decisions Essential for Success?

If you are able to make decisions quickly, you are more likely to be successful. The ability to make decisions quickly has always been an important part of being a successful professional. One of the most important skills required for making decisions is the ability to accept uncertainty.

There will always be unknowns when it comes to making decisions. As much as we try, there may never be enough information when it’s time to make a choice. However, making successful decisions requires you to process and interpret large volumes of data. Doing so is an effective way to ensure that the decisions made are well-educated and informed. Moreover, in a world of increasing complexity, it can be overwhelmingly hard to make the right decisions, hence, data analysis is an excellent tool for decision makers to use.

How to Become a Better Decision Maker?

Each day we make a series of decisions, from what we have for breakfast to which job to apply for. But how can we make better decisions?

Here are a few tips to consider when making important decisions:

Define the Problem

Before you can make a decision, you need to understand the issue at hand. When faced with a problem, take some time to figure out what is going on and why this is an issue. Moreover, learn to think critically about the problem you are trying to solve.

Be Aware Of Your Personal Biases And Beliefs

One of the most dangerous biases we have as humans is our confirmation bias. This bias happens when we selectively search and interpret information to confirm our preexisting beliefs. Unfortunately, this bias is very common and can lead to poor decisions, such as not hiring a new employee because they don’t fit into a desired archetype.

Gather information

You need to gather all the information you can on the problem. This starts with understanding the problem, but also includes your understanding of the context for this problem.

Consider alternatives and different perspectives

There are many benefits to being decisive, but there are also drawbacks. Remember to consider all points of view when making a decision. For example, you may think your idea is the best for the company, but if you provide feedback or ask others for their thoughts, they may give you new ideas that will better suit the company’s needs.

Take time to analyse and evaluate your decision

It can be difficult to think objectively and analyze your decision when you’re in a hurry, but it’s often helpful to take a step back and evaluate things more carefully. This is important because we might find new insights or different perspectives.

Tips to Consider When Making Decisions

Following are a few tips and points to consider when making an important decision:

• Ask yourself what outcome you require
• Consider what happens if you take action and also if you don’t
• Think about how much time and energy would be needed for the decision you need to make
• Consider the probability of achieving your desired outcome or goal if you take this course of action or if don’t take any action at all
• Think about the pros and cons associated with your chosen decision.

Biological Process and Mechanisms of Decision Making

Our brain controls most biological processes in our body. It is also responsible for controlling external factors like our intuition, past experiences, learning as well as decision making. Human emotional response is governed by two information-processing systems:

• Affective system: The affective system is a part of the human nervous system that is responsible for emotional arousal. Mechanisms in this system are not always logical and therefore less controllable. In other words, it’s the part of the brain that says “I’m hungry!” when you see a picture of a pizza or make you laugh when someone trips over their shoelace.
• Cognitive system : The cognitive system is activated when the person has to make a decision based on their thoughts. This system is more controlled and can override the affective system when making decisions. It’s vital to help control emotions, since it can affect how people make decisions.

These two systems are deeply intertwined with one another and impact cognition and the decision making process.

How the Environment Shapes our Decisions

Since the 1960s, environmental psychologists have proposed that our surroundings can affect our decisions, behaviors, and thoughts. These scientists have found that the physical environment may be an important factor in decreasing crime rates, increasing recycling, and improving academic performance. For instance, a study of 54 third graders found that children who were given a messy desk to work at were less likely to do their homework than children who were given perfectly neat desks. Many studies also showed that the environment in which an individual is brought up can influence certain behaviour. For example, a study by researchers from Cornell University found that there is a positive correlation between the wealth of an individual’s family and their academic performance. The study showed that families with incomes of $250,000 or more had an average GPA of 3.5 while the national average was 3.1. Other factors such as political uncertainty, economic instability or natural disasters can also hamper decision making processes.

Decision making skills are important for life, it is a skill that can help shape our futures. It influences how we spend our time, who we spend our time with, and what we do with the limited resources that we have. Moreover, we need to be able to make decisions not just for ourselves but also for the people around us. Hence, it is always better to be prepared and well-informed before making an important decision.

FAQ’s on Decision Making Essay

Question 1. What are the 5 stages of decision-making?

Answer: When making decisions, humans go through 5 specific stages. These stages are:

• recognition of the problem
• defining the problem
• generating possible solutions
• evaluating possible solutions
• choosing a solution

Question 2. Why is decision-making important?

Answer: Decision-making is one of the most important skills that everyone needs to have. It is the process of choosing between two or more things. Moreover, the decision that you make will have an effect on your life, so it’s important to do your research before making a decision.

Question 3. How to make a good decision?

Answer: In order to make a good decision, the individual should have the knowledge and skills to break down a problem into its constituent parts. They need to be creative in order to generate a range of possible solutions. They also need to be able to weigh the consequences of each solution and identify potential trade-offs. Finally, they need to implement a decision which is deemed feasible for the current problem.

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How to Make Great Decisions, Quickly

• Martin G. Moore

It’s a skill that will set you apart.

As a new leader, learning to make good decisions without hesitation and procrastination is a capability that can set you apart from your peers. While others vacillate on tricky choices, your team could be hitting deadlines and producing the type of results that deliver true value. That’s something that will get you — and them — noticed. Here are a few of a great decision:

• Great decisions are shaped by consideration of many different viewpoints. This doesn’t mean you should seek out everyone’s opinion. The right people with the relevant expertise need to clearly articulate their views to help you broaden your perspective and make the best choice.
• Great decisions are made as close as possible to the action. Remember that the most powerful people at your company are rarely on the ground doing the hands-on work. Seek input and guidance from team members who are closest to the action.
• Great decisions address the root cause, not just the symptoms. Although you may need to urgently address the symptoms, once this is done you should always develop a plan to fix the root cause, or else the problem is likely to repeat itself.
• Great decisions balance short-term and long-term value. Finding the right balance between short-term and long-term risks and considerations is key to unlocking true value.
• Great decisions are timely. If you consider all of the elements listed above, then it’s simply a matter of addressing each one with a heightened sense of urgency.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Like many young leaders, early in my career, I thought a great decision was one that attracted widespread approval. When my colleagues smiled and nodded their collective heads, it reinforced (in my mind, at least) that I was an excellent decision maker.

• MM Martin G. Moore is the founder of Your CEO Mentor and author of No Bullsh!t Leadership and host of the No Bullsh!t Leadership podcast. His purpose is to improve the quality of leaders globally through practical, real world leadership content. For more information, please visit, www.martingmoore.com.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Experience — Best Moment Of My Life

Best Moment of My Life

• Categories: Personal Experience Self Reflection

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Words: 906 |

Published: Jun 6, 2024

Words: 906 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

The unexpected journey, a moment of connection, the ripple effect, reflections and future aspirations.

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Essays That Worked

The essays are a place to show us who you are and who you’ll be in our community.

It’s a chance to add depth to something that is important to you and tell the admissions committee more about your background or goals. Below you’ll find selected examples of essays that “worked,” as nominated by our admissions committee. In each of these essays, students were able to share stories from their everyday lives to reveal something about their character, values, and life that aligned with the culture and values at Hopkins.

Read essays that worked from Transfer applicants .

Hear from the class of 2027.

These selections represent just a few examples of essays we found impressive and helpful during the past admissions cycle. We hope these essays inspire you as you prepare to compose your own personal statements. The most important thing to remember is to be original as you share your own story, thoughts, and ideas with us.

Ordering the Disorderly

Ellie’s essay skillfully uses the topic of entropy as an extended metaphor. Through it, we see reflections about who they are and who they aspire to be.

Pack Light, But Be Prepared

In Pablo’s essay, the act of packing for a pilgrimage becomes a metaphor for the way humans accumulate experiences in their life’s journey and what we can learn from them. As we join Pablo through the diverse phases of their life, we gain insights into their character and values.

Tikkun Olam

Julieta illustrates how the concept of Tikkun Olam, “a desire to help repair the world,” has shaped their passions and drives them to pursue experiences at Hopkins.

Kashvi’s essay encapsulates a heartfelt journey of self-discovery and the invaluable teachings of Rock, their 10-year-old dog. Through the lens of their companionship, Kashvi walked us through valuable lessons on responsibility, friendship, patience, and unconditional love.

Classical Reflections in Herstory

Maddie’s essay details their intellectual journey using their love of Greek classics. They incorporate details that reveal the roots of their academic interests: storytelling, literary devices, and translation. As their essay progresses, so do Maddie’s intellectual curiosities.

My Spotify Playlist

Alyssa’s essay reflects on special memories through the creative lens of Spotify playlists. They use three examples to highlight their experiences with their tennis team, finding a virtual community during the pandemic, and co-founding a nonprofit to help younger students learn about STEM.

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We share essays from previously admitted students—along with feedback from our admissions committee—so you can understand what made them effective and how to start crafting your own.

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Life insurance

Best life insurance companies of June 2024

Kat Tretina

Jennifer Lobb

“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.

Heidi Gollub

Updated 8:30 a.m. UTC June 3, 2024

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Protective is the best life insurance company of 2024 . It tops our rating of the best companies for life insurance because of its competitive rates, history of solid portfolio performance and array of coverage options. Protective also has fewer customer complaints than the national average.

Pacific Life also gets 5 stars in our rating. It boasts many of the same benefits as Protective, including competitive rates and a low number of customer complaints. Pacific Life also has the best universal life insurance among insurers we analyzed.

The best life insurance companies of 2024