This page talks about how decision-making determines your future. It's about achieving what you want...

Holistic decision-making
In every aspect of life a decision precedes an action. Most times your decision is a 'conscious' decision, but sometimes decisions are instinctive, such as when acting to save a person in distress, or when you take some form of reflex action.

This page is about the conscious decisions you make about your farm, such as:

* direction - what you are producing
* doing - what you must do today to produce that thing
* darlings - what are you doing with your family this week, and so on.

The great power of this decision-making process is that you also get to ask and answer another question as well and that is, "why are you doing what you are doing".

"Quality of life" is important. Inadequate quality of life becomes the great driver that encourages people to create or force change in their circumstances. Quality of life is all the things that are important for someone - for example it might mean: time with your family, adequate leisure time, sufficient prosperity to be able to choose what you would like to do, and so.

Quality should not be confused with 'quantity' of life - how much 'stuff' you consume, and your impact on our planetary resources. In fact many observers of western society suggest that as quantity of life goes up in many arenas of life, quality sometimes declines.

You might remember that the Beatles wote a song about this aspect of life, which they called Can't buy me love.

We also know that sustaining a good quality and quantity of life means sustaining healthy land. Only with healthy land can the people who manage it sustainably create the healthy profits to which they are entitled. Think about all of the world's trouble spots at the moment. Almost without exception they are found in desertifying and degrading landscapes where the people are poor beyond belief. You can be sure thay did not deliberately set out to achieve such miserable and desperate outcomes. There has been a problem with the decisions people have made.

Why all this discussion is important...
I think it is highly unlikely that people get out of bed in the morning to deliberately make decisions that degrade their land, their lives or their prosperity, yet I bet that you can very quickly think of examples in your neighbourhood where there is erosion or other degradation. It almost certainly didn't happen naturally - she (mother nature), didn't do it alone!

Degradation is much more likely to be the result of human management, and of course management is nothing more than humans making decisions.

So what happens to people and their land when they change their decision-making? First and foremost, their land becomes healthier, as this photo shows.

Fence line effect.
The neighbour on the left has focused on production alone. He has inadvertently created conditions where salinity has erupted. That was not the outcome he wanted!

The neighbour on the right makes all of his decisions towards what he wants - in this case covered soil and sustained profitability. The salinity has no chance of expressing itself on his side of the fence.

If the neighbour on the left adjusts his decision-making he will get a different result.

This photo has policy implications for catchment authorities as well. It shows that local decisions determine outcomes. Different wholes, same soil, different outcome.

Managing holistically might mean for you...
Firstly, you will have clarity about who the decision-makers in your life really are. Expect a few surprises!

Secondly, you will have a written description about what constitutes quality of life for you. We call it a holisticgoal.

You will have revealed a simple way of testing all of your actions well before you make them. You will be looking to ensure that as much as possible every decision is simultaneously financially, socially and environmentally regenerative.

You will be looking for early evidence that you have screwed up, so that you can fix the situation before it ever becomes a problem for you or others.

You will be making much more profit. Every action you take will be moving you in the direction you want to be moving in. In fact, I have a favourite quote for you to consider:

If you don't have a goal for yourself, then somebody else will have one for you, and it will usually cost you money.

Don't allow that to happen to you, whatever you do.

This is where you start...
The best place to start is to get some new knowledge. You can talk to a qualified Educator near you, or make contact with me and together we will work out how to begin in your unique situation. We work with people everywhere - location is not critical to your success.

You should monitor...
The thing to most closely watch is that you and your decision-makers are very clear about how you really, really want your life to become. When you are all clear on that score, you will find you automatically begin to move towards it.

The great strength of holistic decision-making is that you have the total freedom to choose what it is you want. The process is a framework absolutely devoid of 'how-to's' - there are no conditions. You are not obliged to do anything at all, although it is useful to constantly test your decisions to confirm movement is in the right direction!

Other things to consider...
Holistic decsion-making clearly involves a positive mind-set. But that alone is not enough, so the framework we use is structured to convert positive mindset into deeply considered action. That is its unique difference.

Despite what you might hear, experience shows that it is not enough to just 'think positive thoughts' when it comes to the environment. Consider this: The people of Easter Island were almost certainly positive thinking people at the time they began to transform their abundant, resource rich island. One wonders what the individual who cut down the last tree was thinking as he did the deed. Positive thoughts do not alone provide positive outcomes - a framework for sound action is required.

Similarly the deserts of Libya were once the bread basket of northern Africa and parts of Europe. It was not climate change but human activity that changed that. And that change came about decision by decision.

Decisions, and how you make them ie the decision-making process, are vitally important!