The Action Process – Understanding the Mystery behind People’s Decisions and Actions

Have you ever wondered why people do what they do? Have you ever asked yourself why some people do good things while others continue to do even the most despicable things on earth?

The secret to all this mystery is INFORMATION.

People don’t just do what they do, they follow a process. Whether it takes a few seconds, hours or days to do something, the action process remains the same. This Action Process is made up of the following stages: Imagination, Thinking, Decision, and Action.

Most of life’s tragedies, blunders and regrets are a result of the failure to objectively and open-mindedly process information before you commit to do something.

Simply put, it is dangerous for you to decide to act on your imagination without thinking about the consequences of your actions on many other aspects of your life.

Thinking simply refers to the open-minded and objective processing of information towards effective decision making and informed action.

Regardless of your circumstances, you must be able to master the art of open-minded and objective processing of information since whatever you do in life, whether it’s a crime or a good deed, it is determined by your access to and interpretation of information.

I refer to information (data) as merely a collection of signs and symbols that you use for decision making in the execution of your duties and responsibilities be it at home, at school, at work or anywhere else.

The way how information is arranged, packaged and transmitted determines how you interpret it, and the way how you interpret it determines the quality of decisions that you make and the action that you take.

Education, Religion, Parenting, Past Experiences, and Dreams as well as Gossip (Grapevine), Intelligence Service, Propaganda, Culture and Tradition etc. are some of the predominant sources of the information which we have about ourselves and about the world around us.

Sources of information determine what you consider to be good or bad or what you consider to be right or wrong. They also determine what you choose to do and what you choose to ignore.

As such, the main difference between those who make smart (wise) decisions and those who make foolish decisions is Information Processing or Thinking.

Without processing the information, you have through the act of thinking, you are bound to make abrupt and regrettable decisions out of excitement and ignorance, but if you think through a certain matter, you are bound to make an informed decision with lasting benefits.

When it comes to making wise decisions, knowledge on its own is not enough. It must be coupled with understanding in order for you to make informed decisions and act wisely.

N.B: Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding — Knowledge simply means the possession of information, but wisdom refers to the understanding and correct application of knowledge.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a president, or you consider yourself to be a commoner, your actions are always based on information.

Whether you were forced or manipulated to do something or not — the answer remains the same — you used information to make a decision and that decision resulted in a certain act.

The thoughts and imagination you have are subject to your exposure to the information (knowledge) that you have about the world around you. This information is then used in the response to opportunities and threats as they unfold from time to time.

Please note that your actions are immediately influenced by two things: 1) Opportunities 2) Threats. Whatever you are doing in this life, whether good or bad, is based on whether you saw an opportunity or you felt threatened and thus your action was the response.

It is thus important to understand that it’s the information you have about yourself and the world around you which makes you to perceive something as either an opportunity or a threat.

In this regard, anything that disturbs your peace, joy and development is a threat and anything that promotes your peace, joy and development is an opportunity.

Threats can also be anything which harms you or takes away your life and in response, you can choose to fight or surrender. On the other hand, opportunities also refer to that which gives you a lease of life or which makes your life easy and is thus worthy pursuit.

When you look at everything that has been said so far, you can see that it is important for you to carefully think about something before you make a serious decision.

This means that your mind or brain is an important resource that needs to be developed and be cared for just like how men develop their muscles and women do with their skin and faces.

There are several foods and exercises that have been scientifically proven to be good for your brain and thus must be made a priority when it comes to your diet. There are also some foods and activities which are dangerous to your brain function and thus must be avoided.

You must therefore make an effort to do your own research on the type of foods that have a positive or negative effect on your mental health since the state of your mind is the basis upon which the reality of life is premised on.

Adapted from THE SMART DECISION HANDBOOK written by Brian Kazungu

Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/author/briankazungu

Twitter — @BKazungu