1. Teen Success Ideas to Move Your Mind by Beatrice J. Elye
Slide Show of Significant Excerpts
for School/Life Success
by Carolyn Harrell
Chapter 7, pages 47-59
Decision Making:
Five Steps to Making Wise Choices

2. Make active, thoughtful decisions
Click through the slide show once quickly to get the main idea. Then go back through it and take notes in whatever way you think would be most helpful to you. Be sure to complete the items in blue in your notebook
Make active, thoughtful decisions
Deciding not to decide takes away your power and gives it to others.
You are the constant in your decision making.
The way you view life influences your decisions.
You need correct information to inform your decisions.

3. Factors that Favor Good Decisions
Know and care about yourself and others.
Sense opportunities within changing conditions.
Keep an optimistic view of the future.
Identify and accept good ideas, valid information, and advice.
Develop many and diverse ideas.
Tolerate others who are different from you, and learn from them.
Be aware of your feelings and values.
Believe in the goodness within you and others.
Accept responsibility with mature assurance.
Benefit from failure by learning how to succeed next time.
Which ones do you need to work on most?

4. Five Stages in Decision Making
The initiating force behind every decision is change. Stage 1: Define the problem (p. 51) Stage 2: Setting a Goal (broad/narrow) Stage 3: Hypothesize Solutions (lists/charts/inspirations) Stage 4: Judgment by Ranking (p ) Stage 5: Making the Decision (With each decision, something else occurs.)
Five Stages in Decision Making

5. Implementing Your Decision
Set an action agenda.
Include evaluation or signal of success.
Avoid foolish vacillation; allow time to see if the decision works or not.
Review periodically to see if change is needed.

6. Summary
Your background—including your personality, knowledge base, cultural and personal experiences, values, and interests—affect your decision-making processes.
Problems often have more than one right answer.
Avoiding making a decision is itself a decision and can result in an unfavorable outcome.
Good decisions can be reached by following one or more procedures.
A listing of pros and cons can be a quick aid in making choices.
An in-depth process of decision making involves a five-stage method.
Decisions need to be followed by action, usually promptly.
Periodically review and evaluate your decisions.

7. Words of Wisdom
Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.
-Paul Tillich
Don’t fight the problem; decide it. -General George C. Marshall
It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
-John Steinbeck
Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight. Indecision is a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind.
-Jan McKeithen
We have freedom of choice, yes, but not freedom from choice.
-Mary Ellen Edwards
We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road.
They get run over Aneurin Beven
We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
-Kahlil Gibran
One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment…If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along. -Franklin D. Roosevelt
The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.
-Mike Krzyzewski
Which of these quotations speaks most to you and why is that?

8. Try this for one of your classes
Stage 1: Define the problem
Stage 2: Set a Goal (broad/narrow)
Stage 3: Hypothesize Solutions (lists/charts/inspirations)
Stage 4: Rank your solutions. Remember, you need correct information to
inform your decisions.
Stage 5: Make the Decision (Remember, with each decision, something else
occurs. What might some of these things be?)
After working on your solution Write the results in your notebook.
Was the experience positive or negative?
Did anything need to be changed or tweaked?

9. homework/class work/life work feedback
Try this process at least once a week when we get to the main course, and record the plans and results in your notebook. Be sure to date your entries.