Ever looked back on your life and wondered if things might have been different, for the better or maybe worse? Sometimes we don’t necessarily think that our every action or even inaction can have a consequence in years to come, yet we often hastily make decisions which can come back to greet or haunt us when we least expect it.

Yesterday I met someone who worked under me around 10 years ago. He was a pleasant individual who got on with everyone and was not bad at his job too. His only weakness was his reliability as he was often late without plausible excuse and eventually i had to reluctantly let him go. I felt very bad about it too. I recall quite clearly being indecisive about whether to let him go and remember someone telling me i’m not doing him any favours in the long-term by keeping him on.  Anyway, to get to the point, when we met, he literally thanked me for the wake up call as he re-focused and got a job in a national company and has since been promoted a few times too.

I too had a similar experience during the early part of my working life and looking back was thankful for the harsh words from my boss and the subsequent lesson learnt experiencing self-made poverty.

It does make one think though doesn’t it? What if I had not let him go? What if I too hadn’t been sacked all those years ago? Decisions made all those years ago eventually led to positive outcomes years later for us both.

There are also some decisions we choose to avoid and simply go on with life hoping for the best. I think it’s just as bad to not make a decision about something as making the wrong decision. We all have to make decisions on a day to day basis and whether they are wrong or right, only time will tell….but at least we can look back and think about hindsight. Ignorance can be convenient but can make the ‘What if….?’ question much more difficult to deal with years later.

If you have a few things requiring action then go ahead make some decisions. Take some advice about them if needed but don’t ignore them. ……………Catch you later…..got some decisions to make!

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.” ― John Greenleaf Whittier