Have you had much experience on Twitter? Last year I was one of the many people who signed up for it and after a few weeks found myself returning very infrequently. This year I have changed the way I use Twitter, no longer is it a Facebook status box, now I use it to share insightful articles and quick thoughts with like-minded people.
By taking this new approach I have been enjoying the wisdom shared from people around the world. One of the interesting links shared on Twitter lead me to a Microsoft persons blog. In it he was passing along advice for making decisions. I was thinking of our Graduates and thought this might be some sound advice. Sadly, I could not find his original blog post so I can’t give the fellow proper credit. However, I will try to recall the advice he shared.
When considering making important decisions consider the 5 F’s: Finances, Family, Fun, Friends, Future.
Finances is one of the most obvious, but make sure you are looking at not only the financial compensation but other factors like benefits, holidays, and pension.
Family: This has always been a big factor in my life, I am quite fortunate to have a great family that I love being around. When we make a decision we should factor in how that decision will effect our families.
Fun: This is the lifestyle part of an opportunity. Will you love what you do? What will you be doing when you’re not working? What do you love to do?
Friends: With Facebook we can stay in touch with friends more so than in previous generations, but it’s still nice to meet up with them, maybe go for a jog, have a coffee/wine.
Future: If you take this opportunity will it be a stepping stone in the direction of your 2-3 year goals? Maybe your 5 year goals? Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Well I hope I did justice to the 5 F’s perhaps it will help make some of your decisions easier.
Congratulations to all our Graduates and to all our students for working hard and sticking with it!
Yes, this is true that decisions are the most important part of our lives. But sometimes it is not necessary to take decision for everything. Have you ever thought that if a cliff-diver is suppose to make a decision whether he/she wants to do it or not. I don’t think so. Sometimes some activities, even many great achievements are not born from decisions. Those happens because those are supposed to be happened.
I like the concepts of five F’s. They are all good. What necessary here, is how a person should prioritise them. You mentioned 5 F’s, giving finance the 1st importance (or may be you just numbered them & finance came at first). But if anyone asks me how I am suppose to prioritise them, then I will give 1st priority to my family. I have seen many families which lives just like they have the roles to perform in the family. For example, fathers behaves like a father, mother behaves like a mother, elder brothers/sisters behave like they are elder siblings. What I mean here, that if I want to tell about my family, then first of all, we are best friends. Why we behave/should behave like best friends, because only a friend can understand and handle our problems in such a better way like no other. I would like to mention a great quotation made by President Mr. Abraham Lincoln, “I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down…”
Sometimes a difficult situation comes up, and we start wondering how we are supposed to cop up with it, how we are going to survive in that situation. We also start to blame the god, why in the world he chose us to face such difficult circumstances. But what we forget here, that, we are supposed to take such situations as our exam, that how we are going to lead our life further, and really, if we take those situations as our exams, then we are definitely going to pass it. How? Simple. Because no one likes to fail in an exam. That’s why we are going to pass it. When we try to name anything in our life, its not necessary that we can always come up with the best names. But if we can’t find any best name in any book, then we can talk to our mind, and I am sure that our mind is the best solutions it can come up with.
One more important thing I would like to mention here that, all the 5 F’s you have mentioned here, indeed they have all the calibre of decision-making, but in my opinion they are just focusing on being a good individual. I would like to add here one more element in decision making, ‘be a good citizen’. Indeed everyone must become a good citizen, and I know this factor concerns more to macro level, but so what? You can become a good citizen by abiding with law, not to be a troublesome for other people, give respect and take care of public properties and so on. It is not necessary that you can be a good citizen only when you join the police service or the army. You can become a good citizen by becoming just a normal civilian, too. Once again, I would like to mention another quote here, said by President Mr. Abraham Lincoln, “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.” Now this is I call decision making which is always made with a strong mind.
I believe that the Five F’s are an important frame for big life decisions such as moving new jobs occasions like that. I do think though that they shouldnt be prioritized because in decisions different F’s matter such as finance. I am a student and have a part time job i dont believe my family was on the top of my thought process when i was deciding if i want the job. But it would be when I’m thinking about my time when im not at work. I hope the Five f’s help everyone with any major decision in the future.
5 F’s: Finances, Family, Fun, Friends, Future.
I have to say that the five F’s seem to be a pretty good way of going about making decions. Generally speaking, they are really the 5 things in life that people likely hold as priorities (with certain exceptions). Obviously different situations and circumstances call for a different organization of priorities, and I think a key to making the 5 F’s work is getting the prioratization right. Finding balace is key.
For myself, family and future tend to rank higher in my priority list, however, I have to keep my keeping finances, friends, and fun in check in order to (for lack of a better explaination) keep my sanity.
All In all I love this concept. It’s a great list to make decions around and based on, but at the end of the day it always comes down to balance and moderation.