The Art of Making Informed Choices

A quiet moment that changed my day

I was slumped at my kitchen table after a hard day, a little numb and not sure what to do next. I opened Rand Selig’s Thriving!, planning to skim a few pages. Ten minutes later, I felt different. Not because life got easy, but because the book put the reins in my hands. Thriving! is written for anyone who is not yet thriving in one or more parts of life. It shows how to be the author of your own story .

The core insight that shifts everything

Selig’s central idea is simple and strong. Thriving is not today’s weather. It is your climate over time. You can have a rough day and still live a thriving life when, across seasons, the positives far outweigh the negatives. That is what it means to live vigorously, to flourish, and to prosper. This is the reframe that frees you, because thriving is a pattern built by choices, not a string of perfect days .

To write your story, you choose, you practice, and you finish. Selig urges us to take the driver’s seat. Franklin D. Roosevelt put it best, “To reach a port we must set sail, sail, not tie at anchor, sail, not drift.” Practice makes this possible. What we practice, we become, and we only learn to walk when we risk falling. These are daily acts, not slogans .

How to choose what matters, and let the rest go

One chapter is a gentle wake-up call: less is more. Selig warns that trying to do too much leads to stress, burnout, and doing less than we hoped. If we want to leave a record that will be admired and remembered, we must learn to tell the essential from the peripheral. This is not just scheduling. It is character in action. And when you close a chapter in life, finish strong. If you leave in a rush, you may burn bridges and carry regret .

When a goal truly matters, he points to the Rhino Principle. A rhino sees an objective, then it charges with full force. If needed, it charges again. That clarity and persistence can carry us across long, hard ground .

Practice that changes who you are

Selig treats practice as a quiet superpower. “After a long time of practice, our work will become natural, skillful, swift, and steady.” He echoes another truth: we only learn to walk by risking a fall. You do not become that person by waiting. You become that person by practicing the choices that define them, one small act at a time .

Know your gifts, aim them well

Thriving! gets practical about work and calling. Talent is what you are born with. Skill is what you can learn. Selig offers clear categories that help you see your strengths, like communication, humanitarian, creative, organizational, analytical, technical, and physical. He then asks the basics that most of us skip. Do you prefer to work alone or with others? Indoors or outdoors? On short tasks or long projects? These simple choices help you aim your efforts where you will thrive .

Find a why that steadies you in hard times

Selig devotes careful attention to purpose and meaning. Drawing from Viktor Frankl, he reminds us that forces beyond our control can take away much, except our power to choose how we respond. Meaning can come from the work we decide is significant, from love and care for another person, and from courage in suffering. Without purpose, we can chase money, power, status, and toys. With purpose, life feels more authentic and decision making gets clear. He even cites research that links a clear sense of purpose to longer life expectancy .

If you want to go deeper on this, here is a helpful companion read: Discover Your Why: A Path to a Meaningful Life.

Define success your way, then set sail

Selig gives a kind of permission many of us need. Define success in a way that includes integrity and authenticity. Do not chase success. Decide to make a difference, then let success find you. Love the process, and you will love what the process produces. When you fail, let it refine you, not define you. As Steve Jobs told graduates, your time is limited, so do not live by other people’s scripts. Listen to your inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Stay hungry, stay foolish .

Relationships, service, and the world we share

Thriving is not a solo act. Selig points us toward generosity with money, time, and talent. He shares a vivid image from Jon Gordon. In boiling water, do you want to be an egg that hardens, a carrot that weakens, or a coffee bean that transforms the water into something more? We do not have to be great to serve, but we must serve to be great. And when the world looks full of problems, remember Roosevelt’s line about great opportunities disguised as insoluble problems. Obstacles can become openings when we choose well together .

How to start today, with one small choice

Here is how I would say it if we were talking over coffee. Pick one, then do it now.

• Take the reins. Where do you need to sit in the driver’s seat again? Take one small action today. To reach a port, you must set sail .
• Finish strong. Close one open loop with care. Avoid the regret and broken ties that come from leaving poorly .
• Do less, better. Cut one peripheral task; protect one essential priority. Let your day reflect less is more .
• See your strengths. List your top skills and talents, and your best work setting and time frame. Aim your next task around them .
• Clarify purpose. Write one sentence on why you do what you do. Let it guide one choice this week .
• Charge wisely. Choose one central goal and make a focused Rhino charge at it. Review, rest, then charge again if needed .
• Practice who you want to be. Repeat the small behaviors that match that identity. What we practice, we become .

For more on bold choices that fit Selig’s message, see this companion note: Thriving Life: 7 Courageous Choices to Transform Now.

A closing thought to carry with you

Selig writes that it is more possible than we know to build an integrated life and run on all cylinders. We can learn from mistakes, speak up, save and spend wisely, and choose purpose and meaning over more stuff. Think of life like packing a suitcase. It starts empty, then we decide what to put in it .

He ends with a question that lingers. “Could this coming year be the best year of your life thus far? What would it take for this to be so?”

Maybe the answer is one informed choice, practiced today.