When there’s something important that needs deciding, on the basis of what do you decide?
What you like the most?
What will avoid feelings you dislike – fear, anxiety, shame?
What will win the approval of others?
What will have people like you?
What people seem to do around here?
What has integrity?
What’s ethical in this situation?
What will benefit you the most?
What will benefit those who come after you?
What will give results immediately?
What gives you a feeling of progress?
What creates something for the long term?
What’s expedient?
What you can get away with?
What has genuine value?
What’s wholehearted?
What’s art?
It’s easy to fall into a habitual, unexamined way of deciding – a reflex that shapes everything you do.
But you owe it to yourself and to others to become aware of what principles and habits guide your decisions, because it’s the cumulative effect of your many decisions that makes first a career, and then a life.
On living and working 