Apr 01 2011
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Choosing

Making Good Decisions

One of the toughest things to do as a man is make good decisions, especially big decisions. Those decisions that are going to affect the next year, five years, and beyond of your life. Decisions that will affect not only your life but also the lives of people who mean a lot to you.

The problem is sometimes there are decisions where there is not a clear cut right or wrong option. Both options are good and both would probably work out just fine but you don’t know which option is THE one.  When this happen it can cause even the most self-confident man to have butterflies in your stomach and so the average man responds in one of a few ways:

    • You’re so afraid of making a bad decision you freeze up and make no decision or
    • Because you’re so freaked out, you make a quick, rash decision just to get it off your mind, or
    • Your brain short circuits because of all of the options and you end up flipping a coin or
    • You slow down and make an informed, well thought out decision.

 

Every guy wants to do #4 but they don’t know how. I’m going to give you the best system for making good decisions that I’ve come across. It was written by a guy named Andy Stanley and he said the question to ask when you’re faced with a big decision is

“What is the wise thing do in light of

  • My Past-what in my past will affect this decision?
  • My Current Situation-What’s happening right now that should be factored into this decision?
  • My Future Hopes and Dreams- How will the decision impact where I want to be next year, 5 years or 10 years from now?”

It will be really hard to make a bad decision if you honestly work through that question. I’ve tried it and it works.

Mar 18 2011
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Knowing

Women Are Like A Walk-in Closet?

Have you ever been having a discussion/argument with your wife/girlfriend and thought “What does this have to do with that?” (if you haven’t, you will). You’re talking about painting the bedroom when she says “My car is making a funny noise”. What the..? How did we get from here to there? Or it’s time to go to bed and you’re thinking, hmmmm, maybe tonight but she’s ticked off about something that happened at work. How are those two things related? The reason is women are like a walk-in closet. Now before you start sending me hate email, just keep reading.

Because men are visual here are two pictures that will help you understand a key difference between men and women. It’s all about how men and women process all of the details and input you get during a normal day.

Here’s how Men process:

Guys put everything in it’s own drawer. Work stuff goes in the work drawer, home stuff goes in the home drawer, golf stuff goes in the golf drawer. Everything is very focused and nothing is interconnected. But not only do guys put everything in it’s own drawer, they leave it there and don’t take it back out until they need it. One word description: compartmentalized.

Now here’s how women process:

Not that women are messy, but for them everything goes in one big closet. No dividers. Everything touches everything else in one way or another. That’s why what happened at work affects what happens in the bedroom. Everything is interconnected. She can keep multiple streams going at the same time. She’s not trying to be difficult, it’s just how her brain is wired. One word description: Multitasking.

So the next time you’re trying to figure out why your wife/girlfriend can keep 3 conversations going on at one time, just think of the closet. You can thank me later.

Mar 16 2011
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Knowing

The Piece of Paper Every Guy MUST Have

OK, I know most guys do NOT like talking about boring stuff like money, insurance, and investments so I’ll make this quick. EVERY man needs to have a piece of paper with the following information on it either in a place where a few people know where to find it or in the hands of a few people. I’ve done this and it takes maybe a couple of hours to pull the information together. But the good news is once you do it, you can pretty much forget about it.BANKING INFO
Bank Name
Branch
Account Number(s)
Online Access Login Name and Password

INVESTMENT
Company Pension Account including Beneficiary, Account # and Contact Information
401K Account Number, Management Company Contact Information
Online Trading Account, including login/password information
Stock Broker contact info
Union Investment Account # and Contact Information

LIFE INSURANCE
Agent Contact Information
Company
Policy #
Face Value
Location of actual policy (needs to be in a safe or bank safety deposit box)

LOANS
Car loan account # and lender contact info
Credit card account # and issuer contact info

WILL
Location of your will. (If you don’t have one, get one NOW)

That’s it. With this information anybody could take of your stuff if something happened to you. If you’re married, you cannot imagine how much peace of mind this piece of paper will give your wife. So turn the TV or computer off for a couple of hours and take care of your stuff!

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