Are you a bridge burner? Once you’ve decided on a particular action/direction do you burn the bridge your on and those behind you? I’m not talking about the ‘quality’ of the decision – right/wrong, good/bad, smart/stupid, etc. – merely the finality of decision. Do you ever reassess? Again, this is not a statement on the quality of the decision merely a question as to the methodology.
Since I’m an options planner and take a learner’s approach to living, this requires that my methodology embraces a reassessment mentality. Again, without valuing the methodology, where do you fall? While the reassessment can be a range of little to over assess, the initial decision is an either/or. Either you burn bridges, or you don’t.
Obviously I would make the argument for not burning bridges because you may find yourself needing it or rediscovering it in the future. But there is also an argument for burnt bridges. If this is your preferred mode of decision making then it is a ‘once and done’. Once you make a decision, however the path you used to get there, it’s finished. You can eliminate all the attendant baggage that is no longer relevant since the decision is made. You move on quickly. There may be ideas, thoughts, people that are left in your wake, but you are basically untouched by them – you might not even know they exist.
For the non bridge burners, sometimes moving on gets delayed because of your mindset. It’s not a fear of making the wrong decision as much as it is a desire to make the right decision given what you know. There is a continuum of decision making with the non burners from those who want some information but don’t want to be bogged down to those who continually seek all the information they feel they need for the ‘proper’ decision.
Sooo… what kind of decision maker are you? A bridge burner or someone on the continuum of fact collector to make a decision? It’s not a right/wrong it really has more to do with your previous experience in decision making and your personality ‘type’. And no, not all type A’s burn bridges.
