Making Choices in Life & Work

Hey guys, 😎

I wanted to publish some follow up on the previous newsletter but I recently had a conversation with one of my on-going mentees, and our conversation really pushed me to write and publish this first. This is going to be some real talk and serious stuff (or not), but it’s something that I hope that you can take note of it for yourself as well. We make choices every single day, every moment, every minute. But what we usually don’t think about is the impact of those decisions, no matter how small they are.

Choose something, sacrifice something else

When you make a choice to do something, you are essentially making a decision to sacrifice something else. For example, When you choose to snooze that alarm, you choose to sacrifice the remaining time of your life in bed, when you could be up awake completing an activity. When you choose to live abroad to study or work, you choose to sacrifice the time you can spend with your family and loved ones. When you choose to eat that delicious plate of fried chicken, you choose to sacrifice your health. When you choose to binge on Netflix, you choose to use that remaining time in your life to do so, at the expense of either your health, money, or even relationships. When we choose to focus on our career too much, we choose to neglect our family. You get the point.

Paying the price

We might not see immediate effects of the choices that we make, but sometimes we pay it with regrets, sickness, loneliness. “I didn’t get to do this”, or, “I wish I had done that”—that’s what you often hear people say when they regret something that they did, or did not do. We all have gone through this one way or another, and if you are still regretting something, it’s now time to come to terms with it and make the most of the rest of your life.

What you can do

We often are aware of the choices we make, mostly when we are presented with something that piques our interest or are made to choose. Be conscious about the decisions you make while you actively pursue your interests. Short-term pleasures could turn into long-term regrets if you do not understand the sacrifice of the choices that you have made. I made the conscious choice of sacrificing my personal time to to be writing this, because I think it would be helpful to at least 1 person who is subscribed to this newsletter. At the end of the day, if the choices that I make helps to impact someone positively, why not?

🤔 Reflection: When making a decision, no matter how small, ask yourself this—What am I sacrificing, or risk sacrificing? Am I ready to accept the price of that choice I’m making?

Making choices at work

With the above in mind, this could also apply to your decisions that you make at work. Understand that there are no perfect choices, and that choices usually come with their own caveats. To apply this at work, whether you’re in a junior or senior role, if you’re deliberating on a choice, UX or not, you need to show your people manager that you understand their intention and direction, and you show them what the trade-offs are if you were to execute on that vision, and what trade-offs there would be, if it was in another direction. Explain clearly what these trade-offs mean—It could be financial, it could be customers churning, it could be visual, it could be massive, or even trivial. These caveats, when made clearer through explanation, helps you to build that foundational way of making decisions faster, whilst understanding the impacts of your choice.

Mentor’s Notes

This is not meant to scare you but to enable you to make better decisions. It should not be where you start telling yourself, “Because I don’t want to choose, I don’t do anything.” That itself is also a choice. What this is supposed to help you understand is that while you are making these decisions, there might have been some things that you never considered.

When my dad was still around, he was sick, and I made the choice to spend time with him at the expense of my social life. And no, I don’t regret it at all because I managed to, in a way, “thank” him for bringing me up—just by taking care of him and spending time with him. As quoted by The Ancient One in Doctor Strange, “Death is what gives life meaning”, and knowing that I have made that choice, makes my heart warm every time I think of the times that I spent with him.

I hope this has been helpful to you, not just for your career, but also your own life. I remember that I once had a quote in my WhatsApp status (typing these emails made me realise how cheesy I am 😂) which read “Life is a chain reaction. Every choice you make in the present creates history that affects the future”.

Was this helpful to you? Let me know what you think! Anyway, I wish you all a great weekend, until next time—take care and keep learning!

P.S. Yes, as always, please share it with your friends if you think it’s useful.