It was as though MAnvi was waiting for her thAthA to come. The moment she saw him, she blurted the question.

MAnvi: thAthA, is every decision of yours an informed one?

thAthA: What do you mean by ‘informed decision’?

MAnvi: It is when we collect information about something we need to do, analyse the pros and cons of doing it and then acting on it.

thAthA: A very interesting question, MAnvi and you ask it at a time when I was thinking of some decisions I had made.

MAnvi: thAthA, is there a difference between ‘choice’ and ‘decision’?

thAthA: Yet another interesting question. What do you think?

MAnvi: When I say, “It was my choice to do it”, it means I could do it or not do it but I chose to do it; or it could mean that others also had the choice of doing it or not doing it, but I chose to do it. Choice is when there are two or more options.

When I say, “This was the decision made”, it means that there were multiple choices and one was chosen and action taken.

thAthA: Going by what you say, every decision that one makes is an informed decsion isn’t it?

MAnvi: Elaborate, thAthA.

thAthA: MAnvi, when I have two or more options, I would weigh these options in my mind and take a call on which one of those I will choose as my decision to do. The decision I make maybe based on what I know about the choice chosen; or I may ask around for information and make a decision accordingly. Whichever way it is, I have thought about whatever information I have from my own knowledge or from what was collected from others, analyse and take the decision.

MAnvi: If every decision that is taken could be considered to be an informed one, why do I feel bad when the decison taken, yields an outcome that is not favourable to me or to a group of us?

thAthA: Is it because thats not the outcome you expected, MAnvi? Or is it because of something else?

MAnvi: Well, it is a bit of both, thAthA. I may not have expected the outcome I received or I think that I should have considered other factors before taking the decision.

thAthA: Did you have visibility of the other factors when you took the decsion?

MAnvi: In hindsight, no.. Given the choices I had in front of me, all factors within the choices were considered and then a decision taken.

thAthA: Shouldn’t you then relook at where your expectations came from and not on whether you considered enough, MAnvi? Whatever decision we make, we make it with whatever information is available to us and whatever is our priority. Knowledge or information that is not available to us cannot be considered as knowledge; and if we judge a decision taken much earlier, based on the knowledge we have now, that isn’t fair to our mental faculty.

This then has the power to make you doubt every decision you make now, based on the outcome of your earlier decision.

None of us want any decision that we take, to go wrong. Why would we do that? Whatever decision we take, will be for the best interest of ourselves, isn’t it? In which case, we would consider from different angles every choice we have and then take a decision, hoping that that’s the best decision to take.

MAnvi: thAThA, I have heard people making tis statement, “It is a choiceless situation”. There are two choices, isn’t it – to do or not to to do. How can this be choiceless?

thAthA: To do or not to do – that’s the question, isn’t it? On a lighter note, sounds Shakespearan:-).

I personally don’t use this statement, MAnvi. I would think that if someone were to make this statement, it may mean that – of the two choices available, one choice did not have enough pros that could be considered; and therefore the scale tilted more to the other choice. In which case, they had less of a choice rather than it being choiceless.

You know MAnvi, an informed decision in my view is one where you are informig yourself that the decision you are taking is the best decision you could take, given the situation you have on hand.

If this is what you are informing yourself, then the chances for you to feel guilty or regretful is minimal; because you have done everything you could, in that situation.

To take an informed decision is not just having all the information needed to make a decision; it is also informing yourself that this is the best decision that could be taken in this situation. Guilt and regret have minimal or no place here.