“Difficult choices define your life” is the premise of this guide by mother and son team Rhoda and Jeffrey Makoff. Each day we face a myriad of small decisions, and the sheer number of those small ones can make it difficult to squarely face the big ones when they come along. But face them we must.
The authors give us 10 tools for approaching those decisions, and explore important decision areas, from marriage to illness to career and finance. Using case studies in each chapter, I love how the authors impressively cut through the clutter of variables and zero in on simple but powerful criteria.
One of their sharpest points is to distinguish between real decisions and what they call “decoy” decisions that are in fact an avoidance of the issue at hand. They encourage us to separate facts, needs, and wants.Get Off the Fence! ends with thoughts on the “+1” of the title—a consideration of the role of intuition—and a practical guide to “finding and managing” attorneys, physicians, and other expert advisors often needed in times of big decision. This book is an excellent decision making tool.
