I voted the other day and yesterday and today and I will vote tomorrow.  No, this is not election commentary. In light of the times, the notion of making choices is on my mind; I wonder about how we make choices in the moment and how we revisit those decisions over time. Each choice is a vote, of sorts, for one expected experience or another, of one projected future or another. Sometimes there are other “votes” involved in the decision – friends, family, spouse, colleagues – and hopefully all their input follows the insight that follows.

A lot of choices in life are simply like changing lanes on the freeway: the view changes a bit, but you’re still going in the same direction to the same destination. Some choices are like changing roads, moving from a freeway to a farm-to-market road to get to your destination, changing the view, the pace and the experiences along the way. Other choices involve changing direction altogether, like going left at the fork in the road instead of right, assuring you a completely new destination with unforeseen experiences. Of course, there is the really drastic change of saying, “Forget the highway, I’m hiking, cycling and taking the river to where I’m headed.”

Hopefully, most, if not all, choices are made with some thought, discernment, and contemplation, and are then followed by conviction to the action decided upon. Conviction is important, but there is also something else that should follow a decision: review.

Review your decision and its outcomes (good or bad or indifferent), not to create analysis paralysis for future decisions, but to create wisdom.

My mom would remind me of something important when I was trying to make decisions in my youth (and into adulthood, as long as she was in my life): I should make a decision, live by it and learn by it, and when a similar opportunity to decide arose again she would ask what I learned from the last time I faced such a question. Granted, it has been a long time since those days, but that is the tone that I recall about the wisdom she shared with me. I feel confident that she gained that wisdom by learning from her decisions along the way of life.

In all decisions in life, make them with wisdom and gain wisdom as you live out the decisions you make.