In his book, Your Greatest Power, J. Martin Kohe wrote that our greatest power is the power of choice. We all have choices to make on a daily basis and those choices define where we are going in life to a great extent.

The power of making good decisions is a powerful tool in your toolbox of life to get you to a bigger and brighter future rapidly.

A couple of things you can do to help you make good decisions is:

• Have written and specific goals.  When you know where you stand, where you want to go and how you are going to get there, you will increase your ability to make the right decisions. You can clearly and quickly say no to the trivial and urgent items that get in the way of you achieving your goals.

• Use clear and objective thinking. Take a deep dive by asking questions about what you really want, what really matters most to you and why you want it. Asking yourself the why 5 times is a great test to determine how important something is to you. Also ask yourself, what achieving your goal will look like, feel like, sound like and taste like. When you answer these questions in sensory language, honestly, the right decision will become more apparent.

When you have specific and written goals with a powerful why backing them up and you have used clear, objective thinking, it is time to trust your instincts.

As a leader, you must make important and timely decisions continuously. You have to weigh the situation and the resources and make a decision. Remember, a flawed decision that is well implemented will usually get better results than a perfect decision that is poorly implemented.

Problems are called by many names like challenges, roadblocks, obstacles, opportunities and crises. A universal definition of a problem could be: the problem is the difference between the goal and the results.

A problem well stated is half solved. The sooner you recognize you are not on track, the sooner you can make the decision to take corrective action and move toward your goal again.

In closing I would like to quote my good friend Teddy Roosevelt, “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing you can do is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”