Look for Patterns in the Choices You’ve Made

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Consider the dozens of life and career choices you’ve made over the years. Try to remember how and why you make those choices. What were you expecting at the time? How did the reality match up with your expectations? Did the choice of school, career, job, or spouse worked out better than you dreamed – or far worse? What do you know now that you wish you known at the time? How might you have made a more informed and wiser decision? What can you do to improve your decision-making the next time you’re faced with a life-altering choice?

Then look for patterns – hidden similarities that underlie the choices you’ve made. On reflection, you might discover that you repeatedly chose the easier of two career paths – or the harder. Neither of these patterns is necessarily “right” or “wrong” – what’s important is that you recognize your own tendencies and make conscious choices about whether and how to change them going forward.

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Debra Benton

D.A. (Debra) Benton has been helping great individuals and organizations get even better for over 20 years. Just as exceptional athletes rely on excellent coaching to hone their skills, Debra's clients rely on her advice to advance their careers. She focuses on what is truly important to convert what you and your organization want to be from a vision into a reality. TopCEOCoaches.com ranks her in the World's Top 10 CEO Coaches noting she is the top female. And as conference keynote speaker she is routinely rated in the top 2%. Her client list reads like a “Who's Who” of executives in companies ranging from Microsoft, McDonald's, Kraft, American Express, Merrill Lynch, United Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Washington Beltway and U.S.Border Patrol. *She is the author of ten award-winning and best-selling business books including The Virtual Executive and CEO Material. She has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fast Company. She has been featured in USA Today, Fortune, The New York Times, and Time; she has appeared on Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and CBS with Diane Sawyer. To learn more Debra advising leaders, coaching, facilitating a workshop, or speaking: www.debrabenton.com

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