I fielded a phone call earlier this week from a long-time client asking for advice about her teenage son who was trying to recover from a pretty significant mistake. To say the least, it was an unwise decision, generated in part by crooked thinking, by asking himself the wrong question. This young man is not alone. Our biggest regrets often originate when we factor in only a short span of time, such as a year, month, week, or even the next 15 minutes. Reflect for a moment on the choices you’d love to buy back, if you could, that were facilitated by a short time perspective. Teenagers and adults alike are quite vulnerable to this type of spontaneous, feeling-driven thinking. On the other hand, we tend to make wise decisions when we take into account the longest time horizon. When we consider an opportunity or a decision and ask, “I wonder how this will impact me in the next 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, or even longer,” we tend to be very proud of our decisions. We are all free to think, and then act, and then we are all free to experience the natural consequences of our decisions. Breaches of integrity are close neighbors with short term thinking. Rarely will character break down when the long term consequences are sufficiently weighed. What do you think?