Mike Whitaker - The Decision Makeover: An Intentional Approach to Living the Life You Want

Praise for The Decision Makeover

Mike Whitaker takes you through a step-by-step process to become more aware of your decisions, and the impact they will have on your life. By identifying your goals and connecting your choices to them, he helps you achieve what you wantwhether in your career, relationships, or personal happiness. This handy guide should be required reading for anyone who longs for clarity and long-term success.

LAURIE SUDBRINK, President, Unlimited Coaching Solutions, Author of Leading with Grit

Both practical and inspirational, Mike Whitakers advice reveals that each decision you make is really a fork in the road. There is no straight line to success, but the more good choices you make, the faster you will get where you want to be. Its the kind of book that you can refer to over and over again.

ALAN C. FOX, Bestselling author of People Tools

In my research and work, I have found that how people make decisions has a direct impact on outcomes. Mike Whitakers straightforward approach helps encourage people to be more intentional about the choices they make. I highly recommend The Decision Makeover for anyone who wants practical advice they can apply to change their life for the better.

JULIA TANG PETERS, Author of Pivot Points and Executive Coach

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author are not engaged in rendering legal or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Austin, Texas

www.gbgpress.com

Copyright 2017 Idea Gateway, LLC

All rights reserved.

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Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62634-426-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62634-427-3

Part of the Tree Neutral program, which offsets the number of trees consumed in the production and printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of trees used: www.treeneutral.com

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

17 18 19 20 21 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

To Mom, Dad, Mark, and Amy.
Rock,
Chalk,
Jayhawk.

CONTENTS

Personal Exercise: Am I a Good or Bad Decision Maker?

Personal Exercise: Your Plan for This Book

Personal Exercise: Biggie Decision Inventory

Personal Exercise: Regret Inventory

Personal Exercise: My Greatest Dividends and the Decisions that Got Me There

Personal Exercise: My Prime Goals

Personal Exercise: My #1 Goal

Personal Exercise: My Unacceptables

Personal Exercise: A Failure on Life Support

Personal Exercise: Fail or Fix?

Personal Exercise: A Big Fail

Personal Exercise: What to STOP

Personal Exercise: What to REVERSE

FOREWORD

How many self-help books have most of us read? Plenty! Here is one that stands out from the crowd by clearly presenting the fundamentals of the component that underlies every self-help strategyhow to make the best choices for ourselves. Mike Whitaker has combined wisdom, wit, and proven process for sorting and selecting personal best decisions. With directness, humor, and clear illustrations, the author helps us almost effortlessly move through what can be a confusing maze of choices. A pathway is presented for first focusing readers on their lives to achieve personal success, and then becoming aware of tendencies for missteps often taken. The Decision Makeover guides the readers reflection about the consequences of past actionspositive and negativeso that future actions can be guided by a rational process leading to greater personal success. By focusing thought, commitment, and action on future consequences, and kindly but unequivocally guiding the reader along a stepped decision process, it becomes clear how focus on ones Prime Goal and subordinating other decisions to accomplishing this goal is a compelling prescription for a better life.

This book is more than a litany of dos and donts, although one can clearly see the steps and how to carry them out. The author uses a range of examples from his successful business career, marriage, and family life to young adult decisions, focusing on the development of effective growth, facing the downside of poor decisions, and guiding the way forward through personal empowerment. These strong, very real examples give great punch to the narrative and lead the reader enthusiastically toward each next step. His insights are often embedded in sufficiently complex illustrations to permit the reader to use them directly or as metaphors, upon which to draw personal insights about the principles that effectively guide the making of large (prime) and supporting decisions. Interspersing quizzes, challenges, and reflective questions throughout the book helps the reader apply the principles of active learning, guiding the building and maintaining of a robust behavioral repertoire.

Our culture provides us with many opportunities to make life-altering choices that offer immediate gratification but also dead-end short-term benefits. The Decision Makeover is a valuable tool for sorting the good from the less helpful options for longterm success. We can immediately begin to eliminate poor habits and learn how to select better options in the immediate choice process, an important foundation for a better life. The more we practice The Decision Makeover process, the better decision makers we become. This is a highly readable, worthwhile book.

William F. Weitzel Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus
University of Oklahoma
Organizational Behavior and Change Management

INTRODUCTION

TRUTH: A majority of the difference between what you get in this life and what you wanted will be due to your decision making. A minority of that difference will be due to chance/luck.

Welcome! Regardless of our age, we can always make better decisions starting today. The fact that you have picked up this book says a lot about you. You are introspective, inquisitive, and you want the most out of your life. This will be a fun and interesting journey. You will grow your personal power across these next pages. Before we can make more decisions out in the world, we need to begin with some of the baseline concepts around decisions. Then, we will apply them to your world. Once you see the world with these thoughts in mind, you will have an advantage others will not have. Are you ready to begin?

I am a seasoned entrepreneur and business start-up coach. I have created many businesses, and I invest and advise in at least three new businesses each year. You can find me at mikewhitaker. com and my advisory business at ideagateway.com. I have a BS in psychology and an MBA. I am married with three kids: a college student, a high school senior, and a middle school student. I love to optimize businesses and people. Why a business will be successful or fail seems easy to answer compared to the same question for you and me. Why is anyone successful?