W
hat’s next?
You face that question hundreds of times each day,
from the moment you wake up until you lapse back
into sleep. Your answers to those questions determine how you
live your life. The sum total of all those answers is your life. As
we’ve seen from the exercise in the previous chapter, you can and
need to determine the importance of those questions in order to
keep your life in some state of control. Those you can foresee, you
can plan and schedule for, but many won’t find their way onto your
planner.
Many of the questions are pretty basic yes/no decisions.
Shall I get up now or stay in bed for just a few more minutes?
Shall I eat breakfast? What shall I eat? Shall I take a shower?
What clothes shall I wear?
These aren’t really choices, you say? Of course you get up each
morning, at pretty much the same time, at least on weekdays. Of
course you eat breakfast, or not, as is your custom.
Do you have a choice?
Take the matter of clothes. Your clothes make a statement
about your position in society and your attitude toward other peo-
ple. If I wear a suit, tie, and wingtips, I announce that I’m a solid
and productive citizen on my way to business. If I wear a ragged
sweatshirt and cutoffs, I still might be a solid citizen, but I’m plan-
ning on doing some gardening or washing the car. Black leather,
lipstick, and spiked heels make an entirely different statement.
Yes, you say, but you really don’t have a lot of choice here,
either. Proper business attire is a matter of social convention. True.
But you still have a choice. At some point you made that choice