286 Part IV: Using Words to Entrance
In fact, Keith thrived on being out with customers and winning deals. The
promotion wasn’t going to provide what he really wanted. With this realisation,
he chose to reset his career direction and take his skills into another
department of the corporation. From there, he was able to use his initiative
to open up new international sales territories.
Over a longer period of getting into the habit of asking himself what he
wanted, he made more significant life changes, leaving corporate life to
set up his own software company. This move allowed him time to be with
his young family in a way that his own father hadn’t been able to do: Keith
wanted to watch his children growing up.
Asking Questions to Help Make Decisions
You make decisions all the time: whether to go to work or stay at home; what
to have for lunch and supper; whether to accept an invitation to see a film;
how much you should spend on a new computer or holiday; whether to lay
on a Christmas party with your family or not.
Imagine that one sunny day you’re happily working at your job and a call
comes in from a business head-hunter: a new job is on offer, you’re the
person the company wants, and by the way, it means moving your home to a
town by the sea 300 kilometres away. You weren’t even considering a change,
but you’re flattered, and so you go and talk to the company. The deal looks
pretty attractive and you think, wouldn’t it feel good to be working near the
sea in hot weather like this? But a niggling little voice inside you is saying: ‘Is
this the right thing to do? Are you sure?’
Should you go for it or should you stay doing what you know best? How can
you decide this one?
Here are four key questions that you can ask yourself, or someone else, to
guide in making a decision – a life-changing one or something smaller:
✓ What will happen if you do?
✓ What will happen if you don’t?
✓ What won’t happen if you do?
✓ What won’t happen if you don’t?
These four questions are based on Cartesian logic and you may find them
referred to as Cartesian co-ordinates. All you need to remember is that they
offer some powerful linguistic patterns that enable you to examine a subject
from different angles.
