Home » Insights » Did I make the right decisions?

I love my week in Lourdes. It is time out of the ordinary when I can reset and reprioritise. I don’t like missing it and eagerly awaited our first pilgrimage in three years.

So I was devastated when, a few days before departure, I tested positive for Covid and had to pull out.

Should I go, or should I stay?

However, I did not feel particularly ill and considered whether to join the pilgrimage a few days later. According to Government guidance, I would probably no longer be a liability to our vulnerable assisted pilgrims. However, given the uncertainty around the virus, I could not guarantee this. So, as the days passed, I faced various conflicting pressures and considerations precipitated by a positive Covid test.

I considered the pros and cons of going and staying. It did not help much, and I realised this process could not hope to address the fundamental issue. Even had the decision process come down in favour of going, something just didn’t seem quite right.

How to make intelligent decisions

I eventually referred to my personal manifesto, the first item of which is, in short, do no harm. My manifesto was the critical factor in helping me make an unambiguous decision not to go, even though this meant missing the most important event of my year.

But the fact I might have passed on the infection to our vulnerable assisted pilgrims overrode all other factors.

So, in the end, my decision hinged on that one overriding principle taken straight from my list of core values. And in the process, I learned that decisions based on core principles are straightforward and reliable. Conversely, decisions made on a situation’s relative strengths and weaknesses can be difficult, imprecise and shallow

Attributions and references

Photo by Burst on Unsplash