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Question: Why do we make the decisions we do and how can we make better ones? Click the PeelTo be apart of the conversation

Shannon’sThoughts This summer I was a campaignmanager for a candidate in Canada’sFederal Election. Trudeau’s decision to call an elec-tion came at a time of turmoil in Afghan-istan where we failed to help those whohelped our soldiers. In the west, the for-ests of British Columbia were wiping outcommunities and drought was wipingout crops. These situations were madeworse due to the ineffective decisions ofour leaders. During the 6-week election cam-paign, while Canadians decided whomto vote for, the decision of whether ornot to be vaccinated divided a country. Those who decided to get vacci-nated became angry at those who de-cided against it and they started to feelsuperior to these outliers. Some from the anti-vaccinationcamp became angry enough to choseto protest in front of busy hospitals, put-ting other’s lives in danger and insultingour healthcare workers. Now many risktheir jobs if they continue to choose toremain unvaccinated. Recently, media stories of unvac-cinated people regretting their decisionas they, or a loved one, lays dying in anICU bed have become common. It has been a year of decisions forpeople around the world and not justaround vaccinations. There is some-thing simmering below the surface thatlets off a bit of steam when society isfaced with a decision. Be it political, reli-gious, or our health. If we are to avoid the dangers thisanger poses, we need to start makingbetter decisions personally, profession-ally, and globally. The question I haveis can people make the decisions theyneed to make, or will the emotional cur-rent continue to grow until it erupts andlashes out?Click the Peel to Learnhow to Install APeeling

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Make Better DecisionsHiring Decisions Biases Get in The WayBeing ObjectiveMake good decisions - have a good life. Make bad decisions and life will be a struggle. Is life black and white? Does the question of our fate lie in life’s greyer shades or is it all luck of the draw? How our emotions can get in the way of a great hiring process and render it ineffective. Hiring the right people is an emotional skill. Ensure emotions don’t get in the way of your decisionsThere are psychological factors affecting our decision-making processes and by understanding them, we can make better deci-sions. Biases are beliefs we already hold affecting us. When we make certain decisions, we feel emotional, and those emotions can get in the way of making a good decision. To make an objective decision you need your analytic hat.

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Meet the Realtor Meet New PeopleWebinar Video 3 Steps to a DecisionSusanita de Diego is an experi-enced REALTOR® in Calgary. Asa member of the Calgary RealEstate Board, she has her ngeron the pulse of the industryList of online networking groups tohelp professionals and businessowners to create connections andgrow their resources. Decidewhich ones to attend.How to tell your everyday herobrand story. Watch the recordingof a 30 minute webinar about theeveryday hero archtype.Stuck in “analysis paralysis?” With alittle bit of clarity and some strategiesto add to your toolkit, you’ll be ableto streamline your decision-makingprocess and get back to work.

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Making Better decisions for a better life Make good decisions - have a good life. Make bad decisions and life will be a struggle. Is life this black and white? Does the question of our fate lie in life’s greyer shades or is it all luck of the draw? After World War 1 many men were disgured by large facial wounds resulting in a life of isola-tion, rejection, and dependence. They didn’t sign on for a life as a monster in the eyes of society. History is full of heart wrench-ing stories of people who were the victims of circumstance. It is also full of stories of people who decid-ed to live a better life despite their circumstances. Those who feel powerless, and see themselves as the victims of circumstance, reside in the dark recesses of the blame game. They blame everyone else when things go wrong and never take any re-sponsibility for their decisions. If they can’t nd someone to blame, they’ll blame lady luck. Along with the blamers live the martyrs, the ones who take all the blame for how things turn out and absolve other people of their guilt. Then there are those who re-fuse to make a choice and, in their inaction, make a decision that will affect the course of their lives for better or worse. By Shannon Peel

Successful people make good decisions. They know what they want in life and don’t allow the decisions of others to get in their way. They take responsibility for the outcomes and hold others ac-countable for the decisions they make. They do not hide behind luck or fate. They take control of their destinies and have plans in place when the result is not what they foresaw. If they fail, they ana-lyze the process and nd a better way to achieve what they wanted. By understanding the deci-sion-making process, we can be-come more successful. Our ability to make decisions keeps us from feeling powerless and hopeless in the world. When Victor Frankl was interned in Aus-chwitz, he could have chosen to give up and die like many of those around him, but he chose a dif-ferent path that enabled him to nd peace in the bowels of the hell Hitler’s Germany put him in. The secret of his survival was his discovery of choice. He did not blame others or live as a victim of circumstance. Every day he made the choices he could make and by doing so, found purpose in his suf-fering.

When we understand the role of our decisions in our lives, we nd the power to take control of our future. At times one choice is obvi-ous over the other options, and we are condent with our decision. Other times the choice is not ob-vious, and it is hard to know what we should do, especially when it is a choice between two unfavour-able options. When faced with uncertainty in our decision making, should we look for more options, do research, or just make a quick decision in order to move the pro-cess forward? When we don’t trust our in-stincts, our decisions will either be inuenced by others or made by them. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell starts by sharing how the J. Paul Getty Museum almost pur-chased a fake sculpture. They had run scientic tests on the artwork, which conrmed its authenticity but every “expert” they showed the piece to said, “There is some-thing wrong about it.” The experts upon seeing the sculpture could tell it wasn’t authentic, but they could not vocalize why to refute the results of all the expensive tests the museum had conducted. Even in the Darkest of days... We have the power of choice

 Whenever the option I’d cho-sen was the wrong one, I’d expe-rienced a feeling of dread in mygut as I committed myself. It’s as ifsomething I can’t see is telling menot to do something, though I doit anyway and pay the price. When we’ve made bad deci-sions that result in adverse results,we become distrustful of our deci-sion-making ability and to protectourselves we allow others to makethe decisions for us. To rebuild trust in your abili-ty to make good decisions, thinkback to those bad decisions thatshifted the trajectory of your life.Write the story about what hap-pened and the steps you took towhile making the “bad” decision.If the decision was made by some-one else, ask yourself, what deci-sions did you make to arrive in thesituation? Why did you choose thatoption? Did you feel good aboutthe decision? Was it a decision youmade or make daily? When youwrite about the choices you made,try to play devil’s advocate and seeit from the other side of the situa-tion. The objective of this exerciseis to learn about the situation, thechoices you made, and what youlearned from the experience. Once you’ve completed theexercise, look at it from a differ-ent point of view. What if you hadchosen differently? What couldhave happened based on what youknow now? If the result was dueto a decision someone else made,try to see the situation from theirpoint of view. Why do you thinkthey made the choice they did?Subscribe to APeeling
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Knowing what you know now, is your perception correct or are you making too much of the event?. Can you forgive the person for the decision they made? The object of this exercise is to discover what really happened, why it happened, and your role in it. Read books to learn decision making methods that work. Here is a list of books to consider reading: Decisive by Chip and Dan HeathThinking Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanBlink by Malcolm GladwellHow to Decide by Annie DukeHow we Decide by Johah Lehrer There are lots of books about the psychology and science of decisions making. The more you learn, the better decisions you will make in a shorter period. Those who make life saving decisions on the spot in high stress environ-ments are able to make quick deci-sions because they practice during non-stress moments, they study what the options are, and visual-ize themselves in these situations before they happen. If it works for them, it’ll work for you. By diving deep into your past decisions, you can identify aws in your decision-making process, forgive yourself for the decisions you made, and learn how to make a better decision tomorrow. The only person who can make your life better is you. What do you want in your life now and how can you achieve it? Imagine your future honestly and bravely with an open heart to know what you want and how to make the right choices to get there.Click Peel to Comment

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How Bad Decisions lead to My Life Falling ApartHow did I go from a condent, kick ass, successful woman to my mind telling me to swallow bottles of pills? A series of bad decisions over the course of my life.

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BuyDiscover your blind spots and how to be a better leader by understanding how others perceive you. In his book, Death by BS, Likky Lavji shares his BS story and takes a deeper look at common blind spots like, lack of trust, fear of commitment, and conict avoidance. Inside you will nd questions to help you uncover your own blind spots and construct a plan to become a better leader.Available on Amazon

 Every day we make deci-sions, some small and somelife changing, that can affectour lifestyle and future oppor-tunities. Behind them are psy-chological factors affecting ourdecision-making processes andby understanding them, we canmake better decisions. Bias-es are beliefs we already hold,which affects how we processinformation, behave, and makedecisions.
Conrmation Bias is the tendency to gravitate to factswhich conrm your already-heldbeliefs. You will dismiss any ev-idence that contradicts yourbeliefs and choose an optionbased on those beliefs. Status Quo Bias occurswhen we continually choosethe option we already experi-enced and know instead of thenew one because we are resis-tant to change. Anchoring Bias is whenwe choose an option because itwas the rst option we had andany information different fromwhat we rst heard or saw, wedon’t believe. False Consensus Bias af-fects our decisions becausewe think everyone will makethe same choice, even if theevidence says differently. Ourassumption based on presump-tions due to the information wesee. For example, if you watchKeynote Speaker | Facilitator | ConsultantAPeeling Columnist

news during an election which supports one candidate over another, you may believe that is the most popular candidate and are surprised when they lose. Incentive Caused Bias happens when one option comes with extra incentives to inuence your choice.Framing is when you decide on an option because of how in-formation is presented to you instead of relying on the facts. Sales presentations will frame information to inuence your decision. Optimistic / Pessimistic Bias is all about our mindset. At times we will make a decision be-lieving nothing bad will happen or only bad things will happen.

Other Things Get in the Way Cognitive biases aren’t the only things that can affect deci-sion-making. Choice Overload happens when we feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. We have a hard time choosing so we’re less likely to choose anything at all. Decision Fatigue is a com-mon occurrence in everyday life when we experience too many decisions over a prolonged pe-riod of time results in either a decrease in our resolve to say ‘no’ to things we are addicted to like TV, candy, soda, or alco-hol. It can also result in us au-tomatically saying “no” instead of considering “yes.” Fatigue makes it difcult to even think about making decisions, let alone what’s right or wrong, correct, or incorrect. We follow the path of least resistance be-cause it’s the easiest thing to do. Biases can help us make quick decisions and they can stop us from making good decisions. Next time you are faced with a decision, think about what biases are affecting your decision-making process. Is the bias working for you or against you and how can you change your bias to ensure you make the right decision for you? Discover more about Likky Lavji at www.likkylavji.comSubscribe to APeeling Subscribe

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Making Decisions Objectively

By Shannon Peel

When we make certain de-cisions, we feel emotional, and those emotions can get in the way of making a good decision. To make a rational, ob-jective decision you need to put on your analytic hat and dive into the variables of each option. Say you are trying to choose which home to buy, the variables are those things that you will evaluate each home on, like location, size, price, or yard. Each option is the homes you will be comparing the vari-ables against. Here are some ideas to help you make a more rational decision. Comparing Your Options List all the variables you want to compare — price, lo-cation, and other amenities—then put them in order of im-portance to you with the most important at the top of the list and the least. From here you can compare the variables of each option to help you de-cide. Creating a points systemTake the same list and turn it into a scorecard for each op-tion. Give each variable a multi-plier to weigh each variable ac-cording to preference and each option. Variable 1 x 10 Variable 2 x 7 Variable 3 x 5 etc. Then score each home’s variable between 1-10. In the end you can do the math to determine which is the best option.Identifying Pros and Cons Evaluate one option at a time writing a list of pros and cons of each option to review and compare after each list is createdThinking about the conse-quences Imagine eeach possible outcome of each option to gain perspective on the decision. Notice how you feel as you imagine yourself making that

choice and what your life will look like after you choose.Remove Variables Pair down the number of variables and focus on a few important details to base a de-cision on, says Richard Boyatzis, a professor in organizational behavior, psychology and cog-nitive science at Case Western Reserve University.Remove a choice When deciding between two options, ip a coin. If the result leaves you with a nega-tive feeling, you’ll know which option you really want. Gut re-actions work best when we take away the option we truly want to choose. In the end, when faced with the nal choice, how you feel about choosing that option is what counts, so be honest You need to Roll the DiceSometimes,

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about what these things meanto you. Rationally, the homethat is at the top of the list, maynot be the one that you get ex-cited about. If that is the case,you need to re-evaluate theimportance of the variables youare comparing homes against.For example, you may thinklocation is the most importantthing and the age of the homeis the least, but you feel moreexcited about that brand newhouse further away from yourideal location. If this is the case,reassesses the order of thevariables and see what choicecomes out on top. When yourationally assess your choices,you can then verify why you aremaking the choice and committo it.https://youtu.be/SgNQGnwJ4Gk

Meet the RealtorSusanita De Diego the industry and can inter-pret the market data to pro-vide the correct information to help her clients make the best decisions for them. When Susanita started her Real Estate career, she discovered being a REAL-TOR® gave her the opportu-nity to help people and be of service. Being of service is what drives Susanita. Whether she is serving clients, her team, the REALTORS® in her brokerage, or the members of the Calgary Real Estate Board, people come rst. It’s more than helping her clients sell their home or nd a home, it is about helping to present the property in the best light, ensuring she has used her knowledge to obtain the best terms for her clients, Susanita de Diego is an experienced REALTOR® in Cal-gary and surrounding areas in-cluding Country Residential Real Estate and the towns of Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Strathmore, Chestermere, and Langdon. As a member of the Calgary Real Estate Board, she has her nger on the pulse of

and being her clients’ advocate while negotiating. Susanita believes that to be a good REALTOR®, you must put the interests of your clients before your own, be of service, and stay educated about the ever-changing industry. Her dedication to educa-tion can be seen in her many certications, her decision to become a broker, and her roles with the Calgary Real Estate Board, the Real Estate Council of Alberta, and the City of Cal-gary. Buying or selling a home has many moving parts and legal ramications. By always being on top of the changes in industry practices, and any changes in legislation, she en-sures her client’s interests are protected. What sets her apart are the extra things. Each week the team sends out a market re-port to Susanita’s seller clients, along with data and feedback specic to their home. This gives her clients the information they need to help them decide what to do next to achieve their real estate goals. Susanita’s buyer and seller clients are well-served by her continued leadership in the real estate industry and her team’s commitment to doing the right things for the right reasons.Discover Calgary Real Estate News and Stats.Tap cover

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Available on AmazonAnthony Gruppo talks with business leaders about their jour-ney to success and how to be a servant leader in his latest book Pushers of the Possible. In it he shares his journey from construction worker to International CEO and asks questions to help you dene your success path to become the leader you are meant to be.

Hiring the RightPeople is anEmotional Skill Hiring people is an intox-icating experience. Creatingthe perfect role description thatis clear and captures the rightattention. Casting a wide netto get as many qualied candi-dates into the pipeline. Wow-ing the short list with an en-gaging and thorough interviewprocess that makes them feellike they’re the center of theuniverse. Getting buy-in fromcurrent team members…no redags. Making the phone callto let the successful candidateknow that she’s risen to the topof the list. Welcoming her tothe team with a positively out-standing onboarding programthat is the envy of the industry.But then within a year she’sgone. What was going to be thesolution to a number of prob-lems just walked out the door.What happened? How did whatBy STEPHEN pasiciel

started out so good turn out so bad? I was so utterly convinced that she was going to be suc-cessful. How did I blow it? Make no mistake – it is important to create and im-plement hiring processes that identies the best-t candidate. We need to be skilled at cre-ating clearly dened roles, at interviewing techniques, and at coaching new hires through the onboarding process. What we should focus on more is how our emotions, if we’re not careful, can get in the way of a great hiring process and render it ineffective. Hiring the right people is, in fact, an emotional skill.

So, how can our emotions get in the way of a successful hiring experience? To frame it a bit differently, what can we do to ensure that our emotions don’t get in the way of making great hiring decisions? There are three things we should pay attention to.Prioritize objectivity. I’m an emotional person. It’s easy for me to make deci-sions based on how I feel or perceive a situation or person. If that’s you, too, let’s recog-nize and embrace that part of ourselves because there’s value in that. But, we need to make sure that we don’t allow our emotions to rule the day. Re-member that the hiring process is charged with emotion, partic-ularly as candidates sell us on the merit of choosing them to ll a role. Focus on what’s more im-portant: what skills they really have, what they’ve accom-plished, where they’ve stum-bled, what others say about them. Get the facts, focus on the facts, and use the facts to inform the decision.Listen to your inner voice. We can usually tell if there’s a problem. Our inner voice screams at us that there’s a problem, but we silence it. We silence our inner voice be-cause we need to make a hire, and fast. We tell it to be quiet because we’ve become enam-ored with the candidate and convinced that he’s the best t. We refuse to listen to our inner voice because we just don’t trust ourselves, so we turn to the data as the sole source of truth to inform the decision. Paying attention to our inner voice is different from the role emotions play when we make decisions. When we have the facts, our inner voice tells us things based on those facts.

Listen to the voice of others. While it may be difcult to listen to our inner voice, the opposite can be true. We might be so convinced that we’re right so we disregard the wis-dom of others. Consider imple-menting a “No Red Flags” hir-ing policy. Even though you’re convinced that he’s the right person for the job, if someone else disagrees then you don’t proceed – or at least you delay so you can dig deeper into the objections. Thankfully, I’ve made many more successful hires than not. But, the hires that haven’t worked out stand out more be-cause of the negative impact on the team and organization. Hiring and onboarding skills and processes are crucial and can always be improved, but remember to pay attention to the role your emotions play. Take it one step further and rec-ognize that the three emotional skills presented here are skills that you can learn and imple-ment to increase the chances of a successful hire.Stephen is a seasoned coach to entre-preneurs, executives, and managers, and he is a Talent and Small Business Execu-tive, with more than twenty years’ experience in Canada and the United States

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take up far too much of our time and energy. With a little bit of clarity and some strategies to add to your toolkit, you’ll be able to streamline your decision-making process and get back to work. The rst step is to gure out WHY you’re struggling with this de-cision. Chances are your struggle is caused by one or more of the fol-lowing scenarios:Outside Pressure In this situation, you’re strug-gling to make a decision based on what other people think you should be doing, or your perception of what others will think. If there’s out-side pressure pushing you in a cer-tain direction, but your inner voice is telling you that’s not the right solution, it causes conict. Want vs. Should You may be struggling be-cause there’s something you know you should do, but you really don’t want to do it. Or vice versa - there’s something you want to do, but it feels like something you shouldn’t be spending your time on. Feelings vs. Facts In this scenario, chances are you know what you need to do, but you’re afraid of hurting some-one else’s feelings by making this choice. A similar situation is one where you don’t want to have to inconvenience anyone else to make this decision possible, so you’re afraid to ask them for help.Equal Footing Sometimes a decision is really hard because it’s either a decision between two good choices or be-tween two bad choices. If you can only choose one thing out of two great options, it can be hard to pick one because you’ve got a fear of missing out on the other option. Conversely, if you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, neither op-tion feels very appealing. Usually, the things that hold you back from making a quick de-

cision are somewhat intertwined. Chances are, you’re actually dealing with more than one of these scenar-ios at once. The biggest obstacle is identifying what holds you back; once you can do that, it becomes a lot easier to nd a solution and move forward. The next time you’re stuck in the middle of a choice that’s too dif-cult for you, try identifying what’s holding you back and acknowledg-ing the problem rst. Then, make a list of your options so that you can evaluate them and pick the one that’s best for you. But how do you do that, exactly? The second step is to evaluate your options. Here are some of my favor-ite strategies for decision-making.The Stair-Step Method If you’ve got multiple things that you’re trying to choose from, and you can only do one, use the stair-step method. Let’s say you have 5 different options. Pick the rst two and compare them; choose just one. Then you’re going to pit

BookAPeel has more than BooksVisit our online store todaythe winner of that choice against item #3 on your list. Then compare the winner of that choice to the next item, and so on. This makes it easier to choose between multiple options, because Instead of get-ting compared as a group, they get compared one by one. The import-ant part of this process is that what-ever option you choose, you don’t go back later through the pairings. Get to the last 1-on-1 decision and then that nal winner is the option you take.Beyond the Pros and Cons When you have to make a “yes or no” decision, but a pro/con list doesn’t quite seem to cut it, try this. Make a quadrant on paper and put pro/want, con/want, pro/need and con/need into the four sections. You proceed from here like a reg-ular pro/con list, but you put them under the pros that are associated with what you WANT, the pros that are associated with what you NEED, etc. There are subtle differences in these areas that can bring real clari-ty to a situation and help you make the best choice when there isn’t a clear winner between yes and no.Short vs. Long Term When you have two options that are in conict with one another, but they are similar enough, use this strategy. For example, you might

be deciding how to spend the two hours each day that you have child care lined up, or how to invest the prots from last quarter. Make a list of short-term wins vs. long-term wins for each of the two items. See if the short-term wins really outweigh the long-term wins, and which one has the best overall bal-ance of wins. Think about the com-pounding effect: One decision may be easier or more appealing now, but will you be glad you did that in 3 months, 6 months, a year? The phrase I use is: Will Tomorrow Me thank Today Me for this decision? If you struggle with actually picking the right choice, adding these strategies to your toolkit should help you make more ef-cient decisions in the future.The last step is to move forward with condence. Sometimes it isn’t even the de-cision itself that takes up too much of your time and mental energy - it’s all the second-guessing you do after you’ve made the decision. The root cause of this is that we tend to feel like decisions are permanent - we get one shot, and if we screw it up, that’s the end of that. In reality, that’s rarely the case. In almost every situation, you will have an opportunity to choose dif-ferently at some point in the future. There will likely be a cost - of time, money, or opportunity - but there will be a time when you can reverse a decision or take a different path. If you start a new partnership, you can dissolve it later. If you hire someone Subscribe to APeeling Subscribe

and they don’t work out, you can let them go and advertise the job opening in the future. If you invest in something and it doesn’t work out, you can recuperate your losses and try again with a different invest-ment. Very few things are actually set in stone, even though it may feel that way when we’re in the mid-dle of making important choices. The best thing you can do is choose and then move forward like you have all the condence in the world about the decision you’ve made. Give it every possible chance of succeeding, and collect data along the way so that you can eval-uate the decision with real facts, not assumptions. Don’t look back, because the growth your business needs isn’t behind you, it’s ahead of you. Chances are you didn’t start your company based on sec-ond-guesses or self-doubt, so don’t let those things cloud your deci-sion-making process. The next time you’re faced with a big decision, give this pro-cess a try; I think you’ll nd that it gets easier every time you do it. Condent, efcient choices are well within your reach from here on out.Leveraging her breadth of operational exper-tise, Gwen Bortner works with coaches and consultants who want to build capacity to cre-ate sustainable, scalable and/or sellable busi-nesses. Gwen describes herself as an opera-tional strategist. Combining the best aspects of 1:1 consulting, group coaching, and small group masterminds, the Operations Engine focuses on improved business operations uti-lizing her GEARS framework. Download your own free GEARS assessment at http://EverydayEffectiveness.com/APeeling/Click Peel to Comment

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Online Business Networking GroupsWise Women WeeklyFree Zoom Event Every Thursday at noon For women who own businesses and want to meet other supportive businesswomen. The event starts with a presentation in a large group format and then the facilitator puts groups of 2-3 women into breakout rooms to discuss a question. This format provides attendees the opportunity to get to know each other better during the event. Click here to join: RAYL Executive BusinessFree Zoom Event Every Friday at 9am PST For small to medium sized business owners who want to meet other business owners and receive referrals through their membership program. The event starts with everyone sharing their 30 second elevator pitch. Then members are brought in to provide more information about their company.Zoom rm: 842 0510 7113Passcode: 757282BS ThursdaysFree Zoom Event Every Thursday at 8am PST For leaders, managers, and business owners who want to discuss topics and brainstorm ideas around blind spots, leadership, solutions, communication, mindset, productivity, and relationships. There are a number of BS Global coaches on the call to provide insight, brainstorm ideas, and share their tools to live a life free of BS.Click here to register:Build ImpossibleFree Zoom Event Every Monday at 4pm PST For entrepreneurs who are working on a big scary goal. If you’ve been told you can’t do it, or to get a real job, you will want to drop in. Attendees learn from successful entrepreneur, Cameron Chell, who shares his achieving the impossible process to inspire others. Cameron has run a multi-billion dollar company, tech start-ups, the Kodak Coin, put camera’s on the space station, and has a lived a life of Hollywood movies. Zoom rm: 937 4919 1147

LunchClubFree Zoomstyle Event You choose time / day Meet people locally or globally via a 45 minute one on one video call. You choose how many meetings per week, what time, and day to connect. Lunchclub is like blind dating for professionals and business owners. You will meet people one on one for a 45 minute video call. The system matches you with another person, sets up the meeting and tracks your feedback so it can improve your matches. If 45 minutes is too much of a commitment, they have a speed networking option on Saturdays with 15 minute meetings. Meet one person or many, your choice.Click here to join: Do you host an online group? If you would like to have your event published in APeeling or Cur-bAPeel click the form button to ll in a form with the details. If you want to publish it on MarketAPeel. agency’s forum click the forum buttonConnection Apps Did you know the Bumble app has a meet friends and meet busi-ness people option. It is primarily a dating app but more people are using it to meet friends and make professional con-nections. Go to your app store to try it out for yourself.ForumForm

#ThatsLife WorkBooksBags JournalsBook one - Sunday dinner. Five different women come together during a family dinner where they navigate the issues we face in the 21st Century.MarketAPeel’s personal branding workbooks help professionals and business owners dene their personal brands and tell their stories to the marketplaceBook bags, briefcases, and purs-es available at the BookAPeel store on Marketapeel.agencyLooking for a special journal to record your story or a journal to keep your thoughts in? BookAPeel has a variety of journals available.

https://vimeo.com/631439829Every Story has a Hero30 Minute Webinar How to Tell an Everyday Hero Brand StoryShannon Peel helps brands dene their stories and tell them to the marketplace by creating everything from a tweet to publishing a book. Her company, MarketAPeel publishes interactive, multi-media, digital magazines to tell brand stories to the marketplace. Learn more about Shannon PeelLearn more about MarketAPeelView MarketAPeel’s Publications Want to be notified about future webinars?

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Should we fear the intelligence of our smart devices? They already make basic decisions for us, so where does it leave us in the future?

Does Smart Tech Affect Our Decision Making Skills?By Vanya Writer

Recently, those questions were on my mind. I’m one of the many that depend on my smartphone and other smart tech to make it through my day on a regular basis. I couldn’t survive without them. They tell me things like when I need to get ready for a meeting and if I have enough money for all my expenses. For many, our smartphones have become our personal assistant. I can set up phone features to remind me about upcoming appointments and project deadlines. I can keep track of how long I’ve taken to complete a task using the stop-watch. Or I can ask my phone to remind me to shut off the stove in thirty minutes if I’m busy doing another task.So much information is at my ngertips. If I want to exchange currency, I can search online, type in a number, and convert the amount. If I want to meet my friend at the mall by ve, I can get on a website, input my destination, and my phone will tell me when to leave the house to catch the bus. The conveniences of hav-ing a smartphone are numer-ous, but is this technology harmful? If I don’t have to make basic calculations anymore, is it possible to forget how to do them? Not at all. While my phone keeps track of the time to re-mind me when to leave the house, I can focus on another task. I’m not wasting time g-uring out how far it is from my house to my destination. I’m not working backwards from the bus arrival time to decide when to walk out the door to get to the movie theatre. If I’m driving to my destination, I input where I’m going and my car or phone tells me how to get there. No need to study a map beforehand to gure out the best route to take. The time I would have spent doing that can now be spent on more dif-

cult tasks, like deciding what to wear or calling a friend be-fore I head out. You could say features such as autocorrect and editing on word processing programs have made us lazy… and “stu-pider”. I confess that when I can’t remember the spelling of a rarely used word, I just cobble some letters together and wait for autocorrect to assemble the word for me. When writing emails, I de-pend on my editing feature to tell me if I typed a word twice in a row or used the wrong form of a verb. Do these habits make me a bit lazy? Probably. But I think of it as taking advantage of the system. Why spend the time to look up the spelling of a word in a dictionary? Completing my writing task is more important. Do I worry about typos and grammar mistakes? Sure. I still review my work after I type it, but my software acts like a sec-ond pair of eyes to alert me if I’ve missed an edit. This is es-pecially useful if I’m a bit tired or it’s the end of a long day. I appreciate the extra help. Do I think that AI could write my emails for me? Not yet. I still have arguments with

Grammarly over the sugges-tions it gives me. Professional writers have said that AI pro-grams that generate content don’t produce the same quality as professional writers. Our technology is not tak-ing away our ability to make big decisions. By making small decisions for us, it’s freeing up our time and energy to work on more important things. Despite all my fancy gad-gets to remind me when proj-ects are due and which meet-ings I have to attend, I still have to decide what to do if an emergency arises. How do I diplomatically get out of a meeting, handle the emergen-cy, and still complete a project on time? Smart tech is not yet smart enough to juggle these delicate situations. Smart tech can also fail you. Only a human can clever-ly negotiate their way out of a sticky situation. For example, a writer wrote in a forum that she had forgotten to put an assign-ment deadline in her electronic calendar. Only by a stroke of luck, she suddenly remembered the three-thousand word article

APeeling Readers Leather Journal25% Discount Code: BookAPeelshe was supposed to write the day before it was due. You can’t re smart tech for failing you. There are some things that tech just can’t do. It can’t nd aws in your organi-zation system. It is not yet able to prioritize your to-do list if you forget to input the data. However, smart tech can help us accomplish tasks that would be difcult to do on our own. A smart washer, for exam-ple, can calculate its energy consumption. Imagine the time it would take you to gure out the energy consumption of your washer on your own. You would need to do some re-search to nd the numbers you need before you do any math. Your ability to come up with the gures for your appliance’s energy consumption could im-press your friends. You could also gain some insight into sav-ings on your electricity bill. But why waste time on this when your machine could do it for you? Meanwhile, you could be using that time to decide what you could spend your savings

on. All kinds of smart tech could be managing small tasks for you. A smartwatch with GPS navigation could help you de-cide on the best route to your destination. The calculator fea-ture can help you gure out out how much to tip your serv-er. Smartsheets can keep your projects organized, making it transparent when tasks are due. They function as your project manager. Smart devices make many small decisions for us, freeing up our time (and brain ener-gy) to work on other tasks and make the big decisions. Over-all, they help us become more efcient with our time.Vanya Writer Click Peel to Comment

Stories Last the Test of TimePhoto by Randy & Marcy Peel

Confessions of a Recovering ProcrastinatHow to suck less at making effective decisionsBy Jo Knight Dutkewich

My name’s Jo and I’m a procrastinator. I don’t mean to brag but I am exceptionally good at it. There isn’t a task, dilemma, or quandary large or small that I can’t not take, avoid and delay for as long as humanly possible. I have been this way for as long as I can remember; a procrastinateur extraordinaire from birth (I have the forceps scar on my neck to prove it). As a small child grow-ing up the industrial heart of England (queue Peaky Blind-ers), if there was a book report to write, a chore to be complet-ed or an invitation to respond to you would nd me doing..well, not any of those things anyway. My avoidance did not discrimi-nate; it was absolute. Although, in my own defense, it was the early 90’s; the opportunities for distraction via soft rock videos on VH1 and MTV were abun-dant. By the end of my 4-year undergraduate degree I had perfected my procrastination so

profoundly that I almost didn’t graduate. In my dogged pur-suit of the “perfect” dissertation I took so much time making sure I was happy with it (I never was) that I missed the deadline to submit it to the visiting book binder. My graduation was only made possible due to the kind-ness of the book-binders wife, who, (between my sobs,) gra-ciously offered (relented) that if I could hand deliver my man-uscript to their home it would be the “absolutely last and very nal chance” to have it bound intime for my deadline. And so, off I set. Armed with hand scribbled Map Quest directions, me and my 100 pag-es of loose manuscript tenuous-ly navigated the rural property; arriving barely in time to make it to the still hot press. That evening, after nally making it home (having become horribly and predictably lost whilst trying to reverse engineer my barely legible directions,) full of anx-iety, regret and fear I made a decision (two if you count the Chianti). It was a decision so consequential that it changed the entire trajectory of my life; never again was I going to sub-ject myself to the stress, trau-ma, and performance killer that my self-imposed procrastination had delivered. My name’s Jo and I used to have a procrastination problem, until I nally realised, I had a “decision making problem.” I remember my reconning vividly. It was 1998 and I was desperate to get into a new pin striped suit that I had (ambi-tiously) bought two sizes small-er than I wore. I was bemoan-ing my inability to lose 15lbs to a friend. This 5-foot-2 power-house wasn’t having any of it. She looked me square in the eyes and shook her head. In her thick Northern Irish ac-

cent, she said to me “you are not losing weight because ha-ven’t made up your mind to.” I was as a gasp with indignation (in that special way that we Brits are; see Downton Ab-bey.) For the next 15 minutes we went back and forth with my insistences. “Of course, I have,” “how can you say that?” “That’s outrageous” etc. My friend didn’t waiver. She simply shook her head. “No. No, you haven’t. You haven’t lost weight because you haven’t made the decision to. You haven’t made peace with the changes that you will need to make to lose 15lbs. You don’t want to not be able to eat what you crave. You don’t want to have to go to the gym when you are tired, and you don’t want to have to choose an apple over cake.” I fell silent as the realisation nal-ly dawned on me. It was like a giant (sad, hungry, cake-less) lightbulb had appeared cartoon like above my head.I realised three things that day:1) Inaction is not caused by procrastination. We avoid, dis-tract ourselves and delay taking action when we haven’t really made a decision 2) We don’t really make deci-sions until once we have made peace with the changes, pains and unknowns that decision will potentially bring and 3) I really wanted to learn more about human behaviour, why we do what we do and how to get better results. The third one has become one of the true loves of my life and the reason I do the work I do. When it comes to decision making what I have learned is this; human beings are natu-rally terrible decision makers. Making timely and effective de-cisions is a learned skill that is developed overtime by pushing

past many of your natural in-stincts. This is why it is so dif-cult; we have to overcome our instincts, beliefs, thinking and fears. Your brain does want to make decisions. And certainly not complex and far-reaching ones at that. As far as your brain is concerned it has “one job.” To keep you alive. Not to thrive. Not to have unimag-inable success but to simply survive. In prehistoric times this meant keeping you safe in the cave and eeing danger or ghting it out when there was no escape. There was quite enough to do (thank you very much) with simply surviving. These days the “cave” is our sofa, Netix and the job we don’t love and but provides a regular paycheck. In our evo-lution, we have added a 3rd survival mechanism to com-plement ight or ght; avoid. When danger is not physically imminent humans will “protect” themselves from uncertainty, discomfort, and pain through avoiding. We delay making de-cisions often until they can no longer be avoided. We delay

acting until there is no other choice. You will often hear peo-ple say, “I do my best work un-der pressure.” This is another example of our brains trying to spare us the discomfort of self awareness. The truth is we of-ten avoid for so long that we do our ONLY work under pres-sure. As you can imagine; this state of neglect and panic is not where our best decisions and work happens. So, with this in mind the real question becomes “what can we do to become better decision makers?” Well, that’s a big question and research sug-gests there is a tonne. For me, there are a few things that have worked for me and I have made enormous decisions in my life; emigrating (a few times), get-ting divorced (once), leaving a highly paid secure job without another one lined up (4 times), turning down the security of attractive job offers to remain mistress of my own destiny (re-peatedly), getting married for the second time (one of my fa-vourite decisions). These days I make decisions realty easily nding myself saying “no” a lot so that I can say “yes” to what I want and what I know will take me forwards.Jo Knight Dutkewich is a Leadership Coach who helps businesses and individuals to thrive on purpose. She is a skilled strategist, consultant, coach, facilitator, curriculum developer and trainer. She has helped businesses to saved multi millions of dollars in cost, increase protability, improve customer satisfaction, and improve employee wellness, engagement, performance, and retention. She lives with her husband and three sons in the Fraser Valley just outside of Vancouver Canada.http://maybirdleadership.com/Click Peel to Comment

Story creates connections between people by touching our souls and weaving the threads of our lives together into a larger tapestryIf you don’t know how to tell your story or don’t have the time, MarketAPeel has created two solutions to help you.APeeling - Personal Branding StoriesUnPeeled - Legacy / Memoir StoriesDiscover Them Yourself!

Do you see the issues of the world as black and white or as shades of gray? Are all criminals bad and all law en-forcement good or visa versa? Is there one solution to xing global hunger, climate change, or the outrageous cost of a home in downtown Vancou-ver? How we see the world will shape how we make decisions and our commitment to them. People who are shades of gray thinkers, have conicting emotions about issues and are ambivalent about the choice than those who believe there is only one solution to the prob-lem. Jeff Larsen, psychology professor of Texas Tech Univer-sity, researches how ambiva-lence affects the quality of our decision making process and he found thinking in shades of gray enables people to “come to grips with the complexity of the world.” Whereas black and white thinking can shut people off to the bigger picture.PEOPLE WHO SEE THE WORLD AS BLACK AND WHITE TEND TO...•Speak their mind or make quick decisions.•Be more predictable in mak-ing decisions (e.g., who they vote for).•Be less anxious about making wrong choices.•Have relationship conicts that are less drawn out.•Be less likely to consider oth-ers’ points of view.Decision Making & How We See the World

PEOPLE WHO SEE THE WORLD IN SHADES OF GRAY TEND TO....•Procrastinate or avoid making decisions if possible.•Feel more regret after making decisions.•Be thoughtful about making the right choice.•Stay longer in unhappy rela-tionships.•Appreciate multiple points of view. People who need a de-cision to be made tend to black-and-white thinking, while ambivalent people are com-fortable with uncertainty. Black and white thinkers can make quick decisions, but they strug-gle to see or accept an oppos-ing point of view, which results in conict. Where ambivalent people are more empathetic and will seek out compromises by systematically evaluating all sides of the argument. Life is not so black and white. Some issues are right and wrong, where others have a lot more variables making them gray. How you decide your point of view on the bulk of the issues facing us in today’s world, determines whether you are ambivalent or not when making decisions. Subscribe to APeeling

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#ThatsLife

Bad Mother I have the kids all ready to go. They’ve had baths and are in clean clothes. I’ve packed a bag for the day, including healthy snacks. Craig is late. I’m sure he will be here soon to pick them up. I don’t know what I’m going to do without them. They are always with me.I told Rose I’d meet her for a girl’s night tonight, maybe I should go to her place for her family’s afternoon dinner. When she asked me to, it sounded so overwhelming. Too many peo-ple I didn’t know. I shouldn’t be so selsh. It’s painful to be around people. To be around families who are normal. To see what I so desperately want and will never get. It hurts. I know I’m being jealous and petty. I can’t help how I feel. I look at the clock on the mantle, one of the few things I took with me from the house. He’s half an hour late. The kids are restless. They are looking forward to seeing him. Where is he? How could he be late? Annoyance and anger twist around and I grab my cell and dial his number. “Hello.” Craig’s voice comes over the phone and all the anger ows out of me. I want to cry. His voice. I miss him, my heart clenches in my chest and I want to see him. “Hello. Who is this?” he says again.a Bad MomBy Shannon PeelThe Novel #ThatsLife was written as a serial series. Each Issue of APeeling will include a chapter for you to enjoy.

“Craig. It’s Sophie.” “What do you want Soph?” Annoyance in his voice cuts me. “You were supposed to be here half an hour ago to pick up the kids. They’re waiting.” “Shit. Soph, I’m busy. I can’t make it. Tell them I’ll see them soon.” “Busy? Craig they are waiting for you. Why didn’t you call? What are you so busy doing that you can’t see your kids?” “None of your God damn business, Soph. I’m busy, that’s all you and the kids need to know. I’ll come by and get them in a few days.” “What day? What time?” “Does it matter? I’ll pick them up when I can.” “What if we have plans? We might be out.” “No you won’t. You have no plans. You have no life, Soph. Tell the kids I’ll drop by soon. Bye. I got to run.”I hear his girlfriend’s voice in the background, calling his name and the knife cuts. “Craig, you can’t do this.” The anger is back. “You’re their dad and they are waiting for you. Come pick them up now. What kind of father ditches his kids for some slut bitch? A deadbeat crappy one.” I’ve never talked to him like this, never. I can’t believe it. My blood is boiling, my breath-Five Women Navigating Life in the 21st Century.

ing is fast and I want to punch him. I’m shaking I’m so angry. I never get mad. I never talk to Craig like this. Never. To do so… Ice freezes in my veins as I realize what I’ve done. I turn and see my son. His face is cov-ered in tears. “You’re son is crying now.” “That’s not my fault you stupid cow. You’re the terri-ble mother yelling in front of the kids. You are the one who made them cry. It’s your fault they are upset not mine. Don’t turn this on me. It’s not my fault you are a lonely, misera-ble, bitter woman. That’s your problem. Not mine. Get a grip, Soph, or I’ll come take the kids. If you can’t behave yourself in front of them, I’ll have to raise them. I won’t have you yelling in front of my kids. You’re such a useless waste of skin. Don’t fucking call me again. Get a life.” With that, he hangs up, and I’m standing in my small basement suite looking at my son, who is wiping his face and my daughter, who is beginning to sob. I kneel down. I can feel the tears. I can’t stop them. All three of us are huddled on the oor, crying. “I’m sorry. I never should have yelled. I’m such a bad mommy for doing that. I’m sor-ry.” “You’re a good mommy.” My daughter says and gives me a big hug. “Mom. You are a good mom. I love you.” My son hugs me. My kids think I’m a good mom. So why do I feel like such a crappy one?Coming Soon...Story Journals based on #ThatLife to Guide you deeper into your own story to heal the cuts of life.

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