When surgeon and author Atul Gawande treats a terminal patient, he doesn’t assess the available options in ways a conventional medical team might have weighed them up in the past. Instead of wondering whether they should keep fighting or if the time has come to give up, he and his colleagues ask a different, more important question.

“What are we fighting for?” They are seeking to understand what a good day looks like for the patient, and then to treat him in a way that enables him to live that day until the end of his life.

Most of us are not making life and death decisions about our work, career paths or business growth, but we’re still planning for the future. We come unstuck while strategising tomorrow’s survival when we compromise on what’s important to us today.

What are you doing on your good days?
What choices do you need to make today to protect them?

Image by Kev Lewis