When to Avoid Making Decisions
The art of making right decisions
As we have discussed, Prudence is the art of making the right decisions. Prudence involves three steps:
Deliberate – gather all the information and then separate that which is relevant from what is irrelevant
Make a judgment or a decision – choose a course of action
Take action and follow through to completion
Further advice on Prudence:
Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back. It is unwise to rethink an act when you’re in the process of carrying it out.
Think about it before you begin, then just do it. Don’t look back.
Take your time in consideration, but once you have reached a judgment, act quickly and decisively and refuse God nothing
Inspired by St. Therese of Lisieux, Mother Teresa bound herself to a vow to give God everything that He may ask – “Not to refuse Him anything.” So once Mother Teresa recognized what God wanted, she took action immediately, not procrastinating, and she would not stop until she had fulfilled what God asked of her.
When to reevaluate a decision
If Prudence is based on knowledge, then you should only reevaluate a decision when you have new relevant knowledge. Just because something is more difficult than you expected is not new relevant Information.
How many times could we say about our vocation: “This is really harder than I thought it would be,” “I’m not enjoying this as much as I thought I would.” Yet just because something is hard or not as enjoyable any longer is not a reason to quit. It just means you need courage to keep going.
Certitude
Don’t wait until you have absolute certainty before choosing and acting Josef Pieper said, “The prudent man… does not deceive himself with false certainties.”
Practical matters don’t have the same logical exactness or clarity as mathematical equations. There is not even absolute certitude in mathematics. If you wait until you’ve perfectly proven the right thing to do, you’ll never do anything. Relative certainty only comes with hindsight.
Therefore, do your best to understand the situation, make a decision, take action, and abandon the rest to God. God works all things for good for those who trust Him. This sets you free to act with confidence and power. God says, “I got your back!”
Every practical decision entails risk
There is no absolute security that our decision will not result in difficult consequences or failure. After we go through the necessary steps of prudence (deliberation, judgment, and execution), then we’ve done our part
Then, act with abandonment. Do what you know is good. Leave the rest in God’s hands. Leave the rest to providence.
The word “prudence” has its roots in the word “providence”. Pieper says, “How impossible just estimate and decision is without a youthful spirit of brave trust and, as it were, a reckless tossing away of anxious self-preservation.”
When to avoid making decisions
There are times when we should avoid making decisions and taking action. Decisions and actions should not be a reaction to strong emotions like unrighteous anger.
A prudent person will - whenever possible - avoid making a decision in disordered anger. Sleep on it, postpone it or put it aside until you can weigh things calmly and coolly.
Decisions and actions should not be a reaction to lust. St. Thomas Aquinas says that all imprudence has its source in lust because it blinds us to reality. This is why sexual intimacy outside of marriage destroys reason and discernment. This is also why it is impossible to discern a call to the priesthood or religious life while dating at the same time
Decisions and actions should not be a reaction to discouragement. When we are close to despair, our perspective on reality will be skewed. We’ll be overly pessimistic, and so the decisions we make then will be based on an erroneous view of reality.
Having suffered a failure, or fallen in sin, or having made a stupid move - all these things discourage us, and so we should avoid decisions during such times.
A time of sickness is also a bad time to make important decisions and take action because we feel lousy we often think and act lousy. Remember, we want thinking, knowledge and reality to guide our decisions. Not our emotions.
But also remember that does not mean emotions are bad. They are a good God given power of the soul. But the intellect is to inform the emotions of what is good and what is bad and then the emotions are to push the will to choose good and pull it away from evil. But the intellect guided by reality or truth must always lead.
That is why Prudence is the charioteer of all the virtues.