When the alarm rang this morning, I had to decide whether to get up or turn it off and go back to sleep for another twenty minutes. That was my first decision of the day. How many more decisions would I make before the end of the day?

I read somewhere that the average person (there really is no such thing as an average person) makes approximately three thousand decisions a day.  I realize that seventy percent of all statistics that we read are just made up including this one.  However, when one starts to add up all the decisions that must be made, that figure may not be too far off the mark. Before breakfast I had to decide what to wear for the day, whether I would shave or not, whether I would shower now or wait to later in the day.   While all this dithering was taking place I was also deciding when I would get the car in to the service station for an oil change.

Without even thinking, I cranked up the thermostat a couple of degrees to take the chill off the house. That was a minor decision but the temperature outside affected the “what will I wear today” decision.

Breakfast brought on a new round of decision making.  Will I have cold cereal or make hot porridge?  Did I want toast or a muffin?  Will I start the day with coffee or have a big glass of orange juice?  

By the time I finished breakfast, I had made at least a dozen decisions.

Decision making can be divided into three categories. All of my “before- breakfast” decisions were relatively minor as would be a thousand others that I would make during the day.  Many of the minor decisions are made without conscious thinking.

Major decisions require considerable thought and often are mulled over for some time.  I am thinking about trading cars.  That is a major money related decision.  I will have to decide which dealers to visit, what model of vehicle I want that are within my price range.  Do I want a brand-new vehicle or a demo?  What bells and whistles do I need?  What color?  Will I lease, get a bank loan or pay up front?  Over the years we have made some good decisions about car purchases and we have ended up with a few lemons.

Several years ago, when we started spending our winters in Florida, we spent one winter visiting a different church every Sunday. We tried out the Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Evangelical, Church of God, Lutheran and three different Methodist churches. We attended traditional services and contemporary services. By spring, before we left to return back home, we had made a choice.  We selected the church and type of service that turned our crank and we have now attended the service of our choice for thirty winters.  That was a good decision.

Farmers make hundreds of minor decisions every day and many major ones every week. What crops will be sown in each field?  What corn seed or bean seed will be purchased this year?  What type and how much fertilizer will be applied?  What weed spray will be needed?  How will the land be worked before planting or will no-till be the best decision.  All of these decisions will be affected by costs, weather and the markets.  And this is just one niche of the enterprise.

When I was growing up on the farm, we always had three or four pens of pigs. It was important to get the best price to market the pigs at the ideal weight. Too heavy meant that we had wasted feed and too light meant we got docked for under weight.  Dad regularly judged the weight by using a cloth tape measure that I am sure he stole from mother’s sewing basket.  The tape was wrapped around the pig just behind the front legs.  If it measured thirty-two to thirty-four inches it was ready for market.  It should be mentioned that not all pigs stand still to be measured so it was an art to measure-on-the-run.

Some jobs require more major decisions that must be made on the fly than others. The success of a used car salesman is a good example. He or she has to pretty quickly judge their customer, estimate the value of the trade in and know the value of the vehicle about to be purchased. 

My Dad had no trouble making decisions about buying cattle or machinery. He could decide to buy a baler or trade tractors without a minute’s worry.  He did however have one area that was his Achilles’ heel.  Trading cars was a disaster.  He visited several dealers, made a deal, worried about it for days, backed out of the deal and worried about doing that.  He spent nights pacing the floor over car deals.  When the deal was made, he worried for a month about whether or not he had made a good deal.  Finally, after several years of this humming and hawing and worrying, mother took over the car trading job.

Housewives face a myriad of middle management decisions every day. Just planning a meal or doing the grocery shopping probably creates the need to make at least fifty decisions.  One of our friends is a label reader and it can take two hours to buy a dozen groceries.  I can be in and out of the store in under ten minutes.  Do you want to buy eggs, small, medium or large, white or brown?  That’s a one-minute decision.  You want mushroom soup.  I do not need to read the labels of five kinds of soup, I just pick up the Campbells soup and get on with my life.  I may pay twelve cents a can more than some other brand but so what? I watched a well-healed lady wearing white gloves pinch every head of lettuce on the shelf and then walk away.  I’m guessing that decision making was difficult for her.

On the other hand, my quick choices are not always perfect and may have been a waste of money and unless I have followed the list carefully, I may have to make another trip to the store.

I also realize that many people, for health reasons, must be extremely careful about the ingredients in a product they choose to buy.

Here's a sobering thought. Your will is your last chance to make the decisions that will affect your spouse and your children.  It may be the hardest decision of your lifetime because it is the culmination of all the decisions you have made in your life.  Your will is your legacy.  It is what your family will remember about you.  Do you leave all your assets to your family?   What proportion does each child get?  Is your will fair?  Do you want to leave a token amount to a friend who helped you along the way?  Do you want to consider leaving a donation to your favourite charity?

Most people change their will at least three times as they grow older.

Another tough decision is the end of life. We can now decide when to make the final curtain call.  When life becomes too painful, we can pull our own plug with a little help from the medical profession.  I believe that is the ultimate of all decisions.  ◊