This review of 10-10-10: 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years (by Suzy Welch) is written by Cory Edwards. Cory is a songwriter, worship director, and the editor of The Artists Daily Devotional.
A Life-Transforming Idea
When making a quick decision, we’re often told to trust our gut. But if the Bible says, “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run” (Proverbs 21:5, MSG), how can you check your gut reaction against logic? And when we have time to make a tough decision, how can we be sure we’ve thought through everything?
Suzy Welch offers a simple system she calls 10-10-10. This system encourages values-based decision-making in the short-term, mid-term, and long-term.
With each decision, Welch instructs the reader to ask three questions: What will be the consequences of my decision in the next ten minutes? The next ten months? The next ten years? It’s a simple premise for a 222-page book (which sometimes feels overlong), but Welch shows us the versatility of her system by stepping the reader through a myriad of decisions made by herself and other devotees of 10-10-10.
For example, when Natalie, a busy mother of two teenage sons, was on her way to a funeral, she received two text messages. One, from her oldest son, said his ride home from soccer practice had fallen through. The other, from her husband, said he needed to stay late at work and couldn’t take their youngest son to the orthodontist. He wanted to know if she could help out.
Her gut reaction was to skip the funeral (it was for an uncle she barely knew). In ten minutes, she knew her life would be easier if she didn’t have to find a ride for one son and reschedule an orthodontist appointment for the other. In ten months, however, she realized that she would have missed a chance to see several of her elderly relatives. Ten years? She knew she wanted to teach her sons respect and responsibility, so going to the funeral she had vowed to attend was the right decision.
And it is the fact that you can apply your own values to the 10-10-10 process that I find to be most helpful. In making gut decisions, I admit that fear guides me more than reason. This little system is helpful because it gives me time to think through what is really important to me, even if I only have a couple of minutes. Then, if anyone asks for an explanation, I have one at the ready.
Final Thoughts
Though Suzy Welch is a Christian, this is not a Christian book. There is no instruction about hearing from the Holy Spirit, and not every decision described in the book jibes with my Christian beliefs (including some of Suzy’s own). However, for a nuts-and-bolts guide to good decision making, I recommend 10-10-10.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I picked up this book at the library about a week ago, but haven’t started yet. It looks like a great read – I’m eager to get started.
I respect much of what I’ve heard about Suzy Welch’s husband, Jack, the famed CEO of General Electric. And I really like the idea of Suzy’s 10-10-10 decision-making philosophy.
But the first I found out about Suzy Welch was in TIME magazine’s review of her book, which notes that she “impulsively upended her marriage” in the introduction (you can see the intro if you do a search for “10-10-10″ on TIME’s site). The article goes on to note that Suzy and Jack’s relationship started as an affair while both were married to other people, and they were only married after divorcing their spouses. The full article is here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1900229,00.html
Does she address this in the book? Does she address her Christian faith? This is the only site I can find that makes reference to her being a Christian.
@aliotsy
Yes and yes. She also has a short section on values-based decision making and the Bible where she claims to be a Christian.
Like I said, not all of her decisions jibe with my Christian beliefs, but she talks about the poor decision-making that led her to that place. However, according to the book, she was divorced and Jack Welch separated at the time they met. Doesn’t make it any easier to swallow; it just is what it is.
The process of 10-10-10, despite whatever controversy is there, still remains helpful to me.
Thanks Bob. I think I’ll pick this one up.
Life gets so crazy-busy at times that we don’t think even ten minutes ahead.
Best always.
Morgan