“Every choice is a renunciation.”

This quote by Thomas Aquinas cited in a recent article by Ronald Rolheiser, a Catholic priest writing in the Texas Catholic Herald, made me literally stop reading and think! I mean that I put down the paper and stared blankly into space for at least five minutes. The starkness of the statement and the simple truth contained in it provided me with a rare moment of clarity.

I had been vacillating regarding some serious professional choices. The choices that I needed to make probably should have been decided a year ago. It was not critical that I decide right then, but there was also nothing to be gained by delaying – except that to decide was to close some doors that I had liked having open.

Deciding to choose a thing automatically creates a renunciation of other options. It is committing to one fork in a road with many forks and even more side avenues.

Perhaps this limiting of choices is why some leaders in organizations fail to make timely decisions. Just last week I worked with a client group that was nearly paralyzed because they could not choose between several options – all of which could yield positive results. The only clearly bad choice was to choose to do nothing – which is where they had been stuck for nearly six months.

Renouncing choices and closing doors may make us nervous, but I think that failing to do so can make us feel impotent and lead to mental and psychological paralysis. In work teams, failing to decide can drain the energy out of the group and lead to disillusionment and unnecessary conflict. Failing to decide can have serious and costly ramifications for both the individual and the work team.

So, for you own mental health, or maybe for the health of your team, go out there and renounce something today!

You can check out Ronald Rolheiser’s article at

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