What Now?

When I think about all I’ve discovered about the process and different theories of moral decision making, I realize the importance of the life choices and the affects of them throughout my life. Whether people realize it or not, we make moral decisions every day, and a lot of them have to do with small things that if alone, seem unimportant. When we combine all the little things that we make decisions about into a larger cluster, then we can see a pattern of character. We can either see someone make decisions that impact them or people around them in a positive or negative way. One of the classic categories of moral decision making is Virtue Ethics. Over the past four weeks, I have thought a lot about Virtue Ethics as they fit into my life. For instance, driving is a thing we do almost every day. If I jump in my car and drive like I am the only person on the road, I consider myself acting out of my character. Driving recklessly on the road is a negative outcome of a personal moral choice. I have thought about it, and I know that I am a “usual” law abider, and I believe that I am not selfish enough to consider myself the only person on the road. The problem is when I begin to speed and not follow road signs on a regular basis. This is when it becomes habitual enough that it looks as if that it is part of my character. I become someone looked at differently because of my actions. I look at the moral decisions that I’ve made in my life that define my character. Some examples of this could be choosing not to cheat on a test, remembering to take care of my pets, and choosing to love someone when they don’t deserve it. I think that the repetitive pattern of choosing to do these actions helps develop the person that I am today. I don’t mean that I am a perfect person and don’t make mistakes, but a lot of who I am, is because of the decisions I’ve made in the past. An older mentor said this once to me about the person that I wanted to be in the future. He said, “be who you want to be in 10 years, today.” I believe that if I want to be a person with good morals and ethics, I need to start making decisions today that will help me develop into the person that I want to be tomorrow.