Product Description

It's easy enough to tell ourselves "Don't sweat the small stuff," but let's get real-it's not all "small stuff."Sometimes we have to face tough decisions. Should we move to a different city? Get a divorce? Change religions? Terminate life support? Quit our jobs? Have children? Get Off the Fence! covers all of these life-transforming decisions, and much more. This is not an ivory tower textbook on decision theory-it's a step-by-step handbook for guiding people through the process of making difficult choices. Mother/son authors Rhoda and Jeffrey Makoff bring years of personal and professional experience to the table-they have made hundreds of "big decisions"in their successful careers and counseled thousands of people through difficult choices. The Makoffs present ten steps to effective decision-making, but they also recognize another essential component-the role of emotional issues in making the best decision possible. This crucial eleventh step is where the "gut," "heart" or intuition comes in. Get Off the Fence! also includes fascinating stories about people who have made major life decisions. Get Off the Fence! will help people take control of complex situations instead of feeling helpless and paralyzed by indecision. It will prevent them from making poor decisions that create a lifetime of regrets and self-recrimination.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #400867 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-03
• Released on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .82" h x 6.08" w x 9.18" l, 1.21 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Rhoda Makoff, Ph.D., a biochemist by training, cofounded Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, a leading Los Angeles preparatory school. At forty-five, Dr. Makoff started her own successful pharmaceutical company and, seventeen years later, sold it to a New York Stock Exchange company. Jeffrey Makoff, Esq., has practiced law for over fifteen years and is the chairman and chief executive officer of Poetic Media, Inc., a media production company, and DigitalCustom Group, Inc., an international digital art business.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction Get Fired Up: The Good News Is That You Have a Choice This book is about how to make Big Decisions. People often talk about Big Decisions in a negative way as " ' %93agonizing choices," ' %94 " ' %93painful dilemmas," ' %94 " ' %93serious problems" ' %94 and, of course, " ' %93pickles." ' %94 We all know somebody who has tossed and turned, maybe for years, over a major choice. Perhaps you have. Perhaps you are doing so right now. Big Decisions are associated with anxiety, fear, depression, frustration, pain, obsession and that unpleasant set of feelings called " ' %93pressure." ' %94 Big personal decisions relate to dramatic and important life events: love and marriage, childbirth, child rearing, health, education, work, finances and death. Major business decisions often involve the birth, survival or death of an enterprise, the decision-maker’s reputation or lots of money. Some people are skilled at evading Big Decisions. Nobody escapes all of them forever. If you’re serious about improving your life, whether through career advancement, resolving a specific personal or business problem, or " ' %93changing your life direction," ' %94 you must be able to identify and make difficult choices. Before we introduce you to the 10+1 Steps to help you make those Big Decisions, we’ll use the first chapter to put your decisions in context. The message is that your difficult choices define your life—past, present and future. Fearing a choice that will define your life is a natural response. Nonetheless, your first decision must be to challenge your fears and go confidently forward to make any Big Decision that you face. Big Decisions Come from Your Freedom to Make a Choice To improve your life, you must embrace your freedom to make choices. All of your Big Decisions emanate from the freedom to choose, even when you’re forced to select between " ' %93bad" ' %94 options. When a situation’s outcome is certain, you deal with it. If the outcome is bad, you cope. Coping is not big decision-making. Coping is how you adapt to something that you can’t change much. This book shows you how to make choices that will bring about change, not how to adapt to what can’t be changed. So much for abstractions. Let’s look at how choices lead to some typical Big Decisions that you, a friend or a family member may face. Marriage. In vast parts of the world, marriages are arranged by the parents of the bride and groom (sometimes with a professional matchmaker’s assistance). Arranged marriage is still practiced in parts of Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. The basis for the arrangement is not love, but rather social compatibility, sometimes dowry (property exchanged for a daughter’s hand) or other factors that the parents deem important. In some cases, the couple meet for the first time on, or close to, their wedding day. In the United States, Western Europe, and other parts of Asia and Africa, we have " ' %93love marriages" ' %94 (to use the terminology