"Strong emotional appeal should trigger a red flag, not a green light."

A thought by Andy Stanley from his book, Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets (p. 64). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

Okay, what does he mean?

Andy says, "When confronted with anything or anybody that has strong emotional appeal, press pause, not play. Strong emotional appeal should trigger a red flag, not a green light. When something is emotionally appealing, instead of leaning in, we should step back. Not because he’s not the one. He may be. Not because it’s not a good investment. It may be. Not because it’s not the perfect job. It may be. We should step back because anything with strong emotional appeal . . . even the right thing . . . clouds our judgment. So pause. Get your bearings. Go home and think about it. Call a friend. Consider your story."

He goes on, "Considering your story positions and empowers you to counteract the effects of focalism . . ."

Earlier he said, "Focalism, or anchoring as it’s sometimes referred to, is the tendency we all have to rely too heavily on initial information and the emotion it elicits when making a decision. The initial information, enhanced by the accompanying feelings, becomes larger than life and taints or blurs other facts and bits of information that should be taken into consideration. Essentially, we lose focus of our surroundings, our decision-making context, and hyper focus on the thing, opportunity, option, or person in front of us."

Back to where we left off, ". . . This alone makes the question, 'What story do I want to tell?' worth asking. It draws us out of the immediate and focuses on the eventual. It empowers us to put the decision-making process within the broader context of the story of our lives. Our stories are future tense. So every decision should be made with this question in mind:

"What story do I want to tell?"

That is a very good question to ask in helping us make important, life-altering decisions, isn't it?

Yes, yes!

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