Making Good Decisions

Some dreams are insubstantial and fleeting, of no great significance for our lives. But there are other kinds of dreams that open up wonderful possibilities for ourselves and for our world. We need to take note of them. It is often only when we advert to them that we recognize their power, and it is often only in committing ourselves to them that we experience their potential for good.

As your life unfolds, your gifts begin to emerge. You begin to see more clearly what you are good at, to know what you truly love, to appreciate the talents of personality and intellect and the practical skills that God has given you.

Feelings occur in us all the time and have a big influence on our lives. Sometimes they are pleasant, as when we are touched by the beauty of nature, or marvel at the goodness of people, or rejoice in wonder at the gift of life. At other times feelings can be negative, as when we experience fear before an exam, or suffer anxiety about our health, or mourn the loss of a loved one.

What is wonderfully surprising in Ignatian spirituality is the invitation to trust our deepest desire. That desire is God’s unique gift to us, guiding us along the path to God.

You need to be prudent when seeking advice. On the one hand, there are some people who would never dream of asking another’s help or taking them into their confidence in trying to reach a major decision. This is their loss. Nobody has a monopoly of wisdom, and the insight of others may open up new avenues of thought that would otherwise never occur to you.

We should be clear from the outset that we are not talking here about choosing between good and evil. Choosing good means mobilizing my gifts into creating something positive for our world. Choosing evil means introducing something destructive into the world. It should be obvious that this is not the kind of choice we are talking about here.

Any choice we make involves saying yes to something in our lives, and no to something else. That probably seems obvious. There’s always a positive and negative aspect to any decision we make. No one can have two masters.

Making a decision, especially an important life-changing decision, is a milestone in a person’s life. It marks the end of one phase, the phase of deliberation, and the beginning of another, the living out of the decision. It’s at that point that we need to find within ourselves the steely commitment that will enable us to put into practice the decision we have made. Without this kind of commitment, the whole process of decision-making may be revealed as no more than words and empty ideas.