We have this big life in front of us, but we don’t know how to to do it and we get overwhelmed. And we either go passive or we get angry with the people around us. We don’t like being told we can’t, and we don’t like feeling isolated. –Bill Farrel
Life is full of decisions. Navigating even the most mundane choices can be a bit of a burden. In his book “The 10 Best Decisions a Man Can Make”, Bill Farrel guides us through things we should all navigate as we think through the way we live our life.
1. Decide to be decisive: “Most of us make decisions accidentally. There has to be a better way to make decisions!”
2. Decide to seek an adventure: “The normal way God works in a man’s life is He calls us to something bigger than ourselves. Because we tend to be strong, we’ll tend to do things on our own until we have to rely on God… What happens to men when they don’t have a big enough idea is they get bored or angry. Doing something bigger than yourself creates a natural humility.”
3. Decide to be competitive: “There’s an appropriate way to be competitive in life that is part of being a man. We’re competing in this world for the health of our families and the hearts of men and women and the truth being upheld in our world.”
4. Decide to set goals: “The purpose of goals is to keep us in motion, because none of us know what’s coming. A big part of being a man is making plans.”
5. Decide to be busy: “If we have worthwhile goals, it keeps us in motion. There’s a certain pace at whatever God’s called you to do.”
6. Decide to be better: “The goal of life isn’t to be perfect. The goal of life is to just be better a year from now than we are today, and better two years from now than a year from now. Keep getting better intellectually, keep getting better spiritually, keep getting better in your relationships, keep getting better in your self-awareness…you’ll be amazed at how much you accomplish in your life because you’re getting better.
7. Decide to love.
8. Decide to be a friend of God: “Jesus Himself described Himself as a friend of ours. God…wants us to talk to Him. He wants to hear what we have to say…He loves to hear our voice. Evangelism is us ‘having God’s back’; because we live in a world that’s opposed to Him, we stand for Him not because we have to, but because He’s our friend.”
9. Decide to be a man of principle: “Principles are decisions you have made in your soul that these things will guide my life, regardless of what the public is saying, regardless of how it turns out for me – these things are things I believe in, and so I will do them regardless of whether it moves me forwards or whether it moves me backwards in my career or my finances. You can count on me to do these.”
10. Decide to be a role model: “It’s true whether we want it to be or not. If you’re a man, somebody’s watching your life. The reason why is that God just built it into manhood. If you fight against it, it confuses people. If you embrace it, it becomes this really sweet thing in your life.”
Bill encourages us: “Decision making is a step-by-step process. Anybody can do it, because it’s really simple. When you take the first step, the second step is easier, and when you take the second step, the third step is easier. If you work through it systematically rather than thinking you have to feel what’s right, you’ll get to a decision you can have confidence in.”
Bill lays out each of these in his book: .
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