I wrote this series in September 2004. It begins with how I “limited my own maneuverability by not creating an option.” The columns are about how we can increase the options for ourselves with some forward thinking and smarter decision-making.
As you read this series, think back about your own life – and the options you have (or have not) created at different points of time. In as much that we would like to look to the future rather than the past, sometimes doing a “What-If” analysis can help throw up some interesting learnings, provided we open ourselves to it. It is always hard accepting that we have made mistakes or could have done things differently. But if we are prepared to go down that route and trace back to the roots of some of the decisions that we have made, we will find that we are better prepared to face the future and be smarter about making decisions by creating options.
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One of the common factors [in reducing options] is what I’d like to think of as “blind spots.” Think of them as mind blocks – where we let personal biases interfere with decision-making. The second factor is when we lock ourselves in too early to a certain path in order to optimise some other parameter, realising only too late that we didn’t really need to do it.
