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 (more…)