A few weeks ago, I was talking with a few people I had met at a CSR conference in Delhi. We had just attended a panel discussion on the critical role that education plays in reducing poverty. One of the them said, “It’s all about choices – if you have an education, you have access to many more choices and options in your life.” But another person retorted, “yes, that’s true, but does that mean you know what choices to make?”

Sheena Iyengar, a Professor at Columbia University, and one of the world’s leading experts on the study of choice, says in her book, “The Art of Choosing,” “the ability to choose well is arguably the most powerful 

tool for controlling our environment… To be able to truly choose, we must evaluate options and select the best one, making the mind as vital to choice as the body.”

That evening, back in my hotel room, as I reflected on that afternoon’s conversation, it was so clear to me that unless we can learn to make “the right choices” having choices in itself may not necessarily always be a positive thing. For example, for those who can afford it, today, there are more food choices than one can imagine; yet, the same people struggle to eat healthy and thus stay healthy. Most of our daily choices are made through habit. Marketers know this and use “nudges” or subconscious prods towards immediate rewards.

Our life is guided and defined by the choices we make and each of us has the personal responsibility of managing our life — through the choices we make. But what are the “right choices”?

In an increasingly globalized world, our inability to connect to our communities has moved us increasingly from ‘we” towards ‘I’ and if we continue to make choices that satisfy our own needs but ignore our social obligations, we risk the very basis of why we came together as a society. 

We’re hoping this will not be true. At Enabling leadership, we have a simple answer to this. We believe that “Every Child can be a Leader – someone who takes responsibility for his/her and our combined futures.” So, the “right choice” is the one that passes the litmus test of, “Is this in the best long-term interest of everyone involved?”

Come join us towards our mission of helping 1 million children change the way they think and behave.

Picture of Ravi Sonnad
Ravi Sonnad

CEO

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