Grooms - Anatomy of choice teaching positive life choices

Life is a continuing cycle of choices and decisions. Every day we take actions that range from the trivial to the profound, and these choices create a constant stream of ever-changing possibilities, priorities and problems. And its not just about the major choices in life; its about the little things too, things that can quickly overwhelm us. No one escapes the stress and demands of making life choices. We all struggle to make the best choices we can and its not always easy.

I believe this is especially true for students. The world they live in moves at an ever-increasing pace. They live life on snippets of content, instant messaging, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchatand this free flowing information superhighway brings change at the speed of light.

Individuals face some of the most critical decisions and choices of their lives when they are students. The actions they take now will affect their career path, their financial future and stability, their personal and professional relationships, their physical health, their overall wellbeing, and their ability to achieve success. Therefore, I believe that there is a critical need to equip students to filter information and make quality life choices.

We often hope students will make quality life and career choices, yet typically they are not being equipped or taught to do so. Hoping isnt good enough; somehow we as a society need to step up and make a difference.

Perhaps unfairly, our society expects educators to be the ones to fill this need. Whether that is right or wrong can be a subject of much debate. It doesnt, however, change the fact that as an educator, one finds oneself in the position of increased responsibility for educating and coaching students concerning lifes important choices.

As a specialist in behavioral economics and behavioral modification, Im aware that there is a great lack of training and experience available to students regarding what goes into making high-quality decisions and choices. We all have the tendency to ask students in retrospect, What were you thinking? But rarely are we able to offer them assistance in making better choices. Why? Because frequently we dont understand why they make the choices they do and what their decision-making process is.

I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I believe that most of the time students are actually doing a good job in the choice-making department. But choices are becoming more complicated all the time. Also, when we start conversations about choice and decision making, we are inclined to focus on the negative results of poor choices, rather than the positive results of good choices. What Id really like is if we could reverse this and focus on positive choice making.

To do so, we need to increase our understanding of how we all make choices so its easier to guide or coach students as they face critical life choices.

This e-book, The Anatomy of Choice is a tool to assist you in guiding your students in making healthy, positive choices. As a start, lets unravel the complicated nature of choices and decisions.