ADD comes from “Assess Decide Do” and it’s a life management framework, initially described in this introductory post. As opposed to the regular productivity approaches, a life management framework focuses on a higher level integration and rejects the task checking approach as the only metric for measuring productivity performance.

In ADD, each individual can have only 3 main stages or can act in 3 main realms: the Assess realm, the Decide realm and the Do realm. Those stages are cumulative, in the sense that an imbalance in an early stage, like the Assess stage, can create negative consequences in the following stages. A balanced, constant flow between those 3 stages is the main metric of a fulfilling life management.

If you came here directly you may want to check out first the Assess realm post.

Today will talk about the Decide realm.

What Is It?

The Decide realm is the place in which you intent to change your reality. You get in, put up the intention to modify your reality, and then you get out of it. You move immediately in the Do realm. The Decide realm nature is disruptive and powerful. It really challenges your current reality and it does this with a lot of force. It’s a hit and run approach. And it’s supposed to be like this.

As opposed to the Assess realm, where you can spend hours, days, weeks or months, the Decide realm is a very short one. You don’t live long in the Decide realm. Or, if you do, you have an ADD imbalance. And that would be the so called someday syndrome, a situation in which you allegedly took a decision, but never follow it. You remain stuck in this decision realm for ever.

The Decision Is In You

How do you know you actually took a decision and you’re not still in the Assess realm? How do you know it’s time to make a decision in the first place? How do you make that decision?

For many of us, decision seems to be driven by outside factors. We have to go to the job, we have to move out of the house for the errands, we have to pay our mortgage. We make these decisions in response to outside factors. Once the decision took, we move. Go to the job, to the grocery shop, we pay the bills. In fact, the decision is never driven by outside factors, it’s an internal process.

We take a decision after we can’t assess the facts anymore. If there’s nothing more to assess about our mortgage payment we make a decision: pay it. Or don’t pay it, of course. If we can’t assess anything more about the job, we go there, we immerse in the task. If it’s nothing more to add about our grocery shopping list, we go shopping. Or don’t and give room to other events in our life.

Decision Is A Reality Killer

Each decision you take will kill your current reality and will force you to replace it with another one, by going into the Do realm. You can recognize a decision by its level of reality destruction. If the decision will not change something in your reality, it’s not a decision, it’s still an assessment. If the decision will dramatically change your reality, you know it’s time to move on and create that reality.

For example, if you decide to go to your job, that will dramatically change your current environment: you’ll be in a different room, talking with different people and doing something different from what you’re doing now. If you’re going to the grocery shop, you’ll alter your reality by bringing in some more items. If you pay your mortgage, your reality will be modified also: you’ll have fewer money and you’ll be closer to completely pay your house.

So, the simplest and most accurate sign for recognizing a decision is its capacity of changing reality. If it’s not projecting a new reality, different from your current one, you’re not actually making a decision, you’re playing with your mind.

Choosing Your Personal Path

Taking the right decision is an art, so it’s living in the Assess realm, so it’s doing things in the Do realm. Identifying the best decision you can take at a certain point in your life it’s a key factor in your life management framework. In fact, your personal growth and evolution are dictated by your decision, not by your assessment, nor by doing. It’s what you decide that creates your reality, doing it is just an effect, not a cause.

You’re taking at least one decision each minute. You drive your focus and create your next reality all the time. Sadly, most of the time you’re doing it on auto-pilot. Without assessing. You’re just following old habits or established patterns. You’re living by reflex, not by miracle. Each decision you take is really a small miracle, because it reveals your creative powers. With each decision you actually modify your universe and create your desired world.

The core of your existence is in the Decision realm. The power of your self transformation is there, in the decision you take, in the realities your project for yourself, in the future you already see and embrace. So, instead of going to a job, assess more and see if that job really fits you. Instead of going to the grocery shop see if you can do something more interesting with your time. Instead of paying your mortgage see if you can pay it all in one leap.

Maybe the answer to all these will be: ok, I’ve assessed it and I can’t do anything about it right now. I’ll go to that job, I’ll go shopping and then I’ll pay my bill. But if you do this assessment constantly, something will change. Your decision will be influenced. Maybe after a while you’ll understand that your job is not fulfilling. Is something you’d like to change. And with this everything will change.

What you’ve just done is to broke an old, petrified flow in the Assess-Decide-Do pattern and create a new one. This is how life changes.

Small Decisions Or Big Decisions?

The power of a life management framework resides in its flexibility, in its power to adapt and adjust. You can apply this pattern to all processes, from your lifetime destiny and fulfillment to your day to day activities. As long as you correctly identify each stage in which you are acting, you have the power to rewrite those patterns.

There are no small or big decisions. Each decision is important and each decision has the power to change your world.

Maybe this post was a little bit on the emotional, not-so-factual, side, but I did it on purpose: I wanted to emphasize the importance of the decision realm as the core of your potential. ADD is just a framework and it supports any implementation you like, so I’ll be writing in the near future about specific usages of it, like ADD for relationships, ADD for career or ADD for a healthy lifestyle, so expect a more practical and day to day approach of the decision process in those posts.

Until then, be sure to create your reality carefully. 🙂