Meggin’s Current Articles

Making Decisions and Making Changes

9th April, 2010 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments

Do you sometimes wish that things were different for you? Have you often thought of, “If only…”? What if you combined those two ideas – and turned them into actions you could take?

Let us start with you making your own list of things that you would like to be different. It might be relationships you have, certain work that you do, something about your physical being, or other practices in which you engage. So make your list and then read the rest of the article.

Now, looking at your list, you need to begin to think about “If this, then, this.” That is, you will consider, “If this (relationship, work, practice, or habit) is going to occur, then this (action, conversation, etc.) will need to happen. You can set up a page that has lots of sentence frames like this:

If ________________________, then _______________________.

Now, begin to fill them in. Let me give you a few samples first:

An example would be, if I am not going to work with high maintenance clients, then I need to talk with my colleagues to find out if they want these clients or if we need to verify the ease of working with the person before our firm ever takes them on.

Another example would be, if we are going to donate money to a special cause instead of buying gifts at the holiday season, then I need to have a way of letting people know that this is our choice and we encourage them to do the same.

Here’s another: If I am keeping the door closed on cynical, negative language, then I need to remind the people in my house that I don’t want to hear such language and will just take myself out of the room if that is the level of discourse they are engaged in. (I know…I make it sound s easy, don’t I?! HA!)

Write out if ______________ (I intend to keep the door closed on x) then ______________ here is what I will need to do.

It is not some magical occurrence to make changes in your life, that is, closing or keeping closed certain “doors” in your life so that your life can be better next year than it has been. You need to be deliberate about keeping doors closed that you just don’t want to pop or creak open this next year.

So with your if, then statements, I imagine you found yourself with some work to do.

Maybe there are conversations you need to have.

Maybe there are phone calls you need to make.

Maybe you need to schedule time weekly to take care of something.

Keep in mind, If this, then that. Be purposeful and deliberate about your decisions to stay on the upside vs. on the downside. If you are going to stay in an empowered, positive frame of mind, it involves taking actions based on the decisions you make.

You can do this.

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. ~Flora Whittemore

We explored the idea of “decision doors” during 5 sessions of the Staying Positive Society and those recordings and materials are available for you at

** http://stayingpositiveinafreakedoutworld.com/Materials.php

(c) 2010 Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. | The Ph.D. of Productivity(tm)