Welcome to shameless leadership. I'm your host, Sarah Dean. This show is for women, transgender people, non-binary folks, as well as allies, who are committed to advancing their leadership while also advancing the leadership of those around them. In each episode, we will offer practical tips, leadership strategies, and inspiring

stories to help you become a more confident, compassionate, and inclusive leader. The truth is,

you were born to lead. What might happen for you if you were to wholeheartedly embrace that

part of yourself? So let's start now, together. Hello, shameless leaders. So today we're going to be talking about four questions you can ask yourself or walk yourself

through when you are on the cusp of making a decision.

And so when you are in that moment where there's something that line ahead of you and you,

I think I want to do this, or maybe you think I don't want to do this or maybe I should do this.

We all have moments where we are faced with a decision or an option or an opportunity and

our minds can go a little haywire. We can get a little overwhelmed by weighing the pros and the

cons and trying to think if I make this decision, what does that mean X amount of

months or years from now? What's the potential fallout? What are the potential benefits? Sometimes

we only see one or the other. We only see potential benefits or we only see the potential for things to go

sideways. So I'm going to give you four questions that you can ask yourself to really think through

if a decision is well aligned for you in this moment.

And I'm going to use a couple different examples. I'm going to first use the example of myself

when I decided to go back to grad school. I'm using this example because when I made the decision

to go back to school, one of the things that was really hard for me in that season of discernment

was thinking through, is this something that's

going to benefit me or does it just kind of sound cool? Does it just kind of sound cool to get a master's?

And I think we all have moments where something looks maybe a little glamorous or there's something

that seems novel or exciting or maybe a little fancy or a little sexy about a decision and thinking

through, is this the right thing or is this the right thing right now can become really,

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