Strange how no one has a drawer full of rulers in their home. One ruler is sufficient. Maybe you have a couple of tape measures in your house. An inch is an inch. A foot is a foot. No more and no less. Rulers neither lie nor confuse. They simply make your understanding exact when it comes to measurement.
It occurred to me that life has us carry a drawer full of rulers with us daily. Instead of them being uniform in increment and exactly the same in function, our drawer has many different types. All of them are used to measure something very different. They are used to guide us when making decisions.
Without thought, we grab a ruler out of our drawer to help us. This time it has a scale of right and wrong on it. The next one has a scale based on our emotions and how much we will help or hurt another person. Deep in the drawer we find one that has a dream on it. Another, one aspect of either functionality, purpose, or intent. Why there is even one that helps us measure, in advance, other people’s reaction to what we will decide.
As imperfect decision makers, we subconsciously make decisions to satisfy different perspectives by using different rulers to measure them before deciding. The problem is we use one type of ruler one day and then another one on a different day. One day we are rational. Another day emotional. The measures we use to gauge a decision varies randomly because we use so many of our rulers.. Diminishing our track record for successful outcomes.
Rulers provide us with expedience when we find the one that helps us make our decision quickly and makes our comfort level with our decision the highest. But they may not be the best ruler to measure our decision with. Quick and comfortable are never the best measures to use to make a good decision.
We have heard a million times about the benefits of self-awareness or self-discipline. They are very necessary to help us clean out our drawer full of rulers. Leaving only two or three for us to use that are both consistent with who we are and what we aspire to achieve. It’s the only way for us to become more effective by narrowing the measures we use to judge the decisions we make.
Simplifying life can be a challenge. Getting rid of some rulers that you no longer have to carry with you every day, is a good first step.