A Framework For Choice & A Gymnastics Legend

Change the things you can, accept the things you cannot. Spend your time figuring out which is which and you will save yourself time, stress and wasted resources.

Why Decisions Feel Overwhelming

Every day, you face a storm of choices. Some are trivial: what to have for lunch, which podcast to play. Others are monumental: whether to leave a career, propose to a partner, or move to a new city.

Why do some choices feel impossible while others slip by unnoticed? The reason is that no decision exists in isolation. Each is influenced by personal abilities, environmental conditions, timing, and the ripple effect of past decisions. It is messy, but messy does not mean incomprehensible. Just as math uses formulas to simplify complex relationships, we can create a framework to understand the forces shaping our lives. By simplifying the “mess,” we can pinpoint exactly where our agency lies.

To illustrate this, we will examine the life of world-renowned gymnast Simone Biles against a choice framework to empower your decision-making.

A Quick Pilot Analogy to Warm Up

Imagine yourself as the pilot of a commercial aircraft. You have the freedom of choice to fly anywhere, but that freedom is governed by four distinct variables:

1. Aptitude: Your health, training, and years of study.

2. The Machine: The mechanical condition of the plane, maintained by others.

3. The System: Air traffic control and the rules of the sky.

4. The Environment: The weather — thunderstorms that force a detour regardless of your intent.

Similarly, in life, choice is shaped by internal forces (who you are) and external forces (the world around you).

The Choice Framework Formula: Breaking It Down

Let’s frame the decision-making process in symbolic formula (Mathematicians, forgive me and my abuse of your language). It’s not meant to be mathematically accurate, but to capture the moving parts: (Don’t Panic!)

• ∑C = This is the sum of choices where one choice can influence the next.

• P + E = Personal factors vs. external factors that influence a choice’s outcome.

• SC + RC = A single choice (SC) vs. having multiple chances to make the same choice again (recurring choice).

• W × Tn × P = Willpower, Tenacity, Perseverance is the amount of effort an individual puts into their choice.

• T = the influence of time on your choice

Again, don’t panic, we’ll unpack each component.

Personal Factors (P): Who You Are at the Moment of Choice

“The swiftest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development.” — Robin Sharma

Personal factors are your traits, skills, health, and knowledge. They shape your “capacity” in the moment of choice. Simone Biles was born with a specific physiological aptitude for gymnastics, but she complemented that with an internal drive to refine that talent into world-class skill. Notably, she also accepted what she could not change, such as her height, and optimized her choices within those physical realities.

• Do you have the strength to run a marathon?

• The knowledge to pass an exam?

• How good are you at music versus sports?

Personal factors are like an inherited set of tools in your toolbox. You can sharpen them, add new ones, and adapt them over time. They are the most important factor to choice because your investment in them gives you the tools to make a choice successful.

External Factors (E): The World Around You

“You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you towards your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are things around you helping you towards success — or are they holding you back” –W. Clement Stone

External factors are the forces beyond your direct control — economic conditions, family background, geographic location, or societal systems. They can support or hinder your choices.

• A storm might delay your flight.

• A hiring freeze might block your career move.

• A mentor’s guidance might open a door you couldn’t access alone.

External factors consist of:

1. Environment: Where you live and what is around you. The challenges and opportunities provided to someone living in the deserts of Southern Libya are extremely different than those of someone living in Florida. The individual in Libya does not have to worry about a hurricane hitting their home, but they do have to worry about the civil war ongoing for 10+ years.

2. Interpretation of the Environment: Whether you view an obstacle as a wall or a hurdle. Are the things around your challenges to overcome, or insurmountable barriers. How you view these challenges determines if you realize what choices you have, or not.

3. Human Factor: The choices of others (a boss, a parent, a judge) that ripple into your life. Another’s choices can have drastic impacts on the chances of your own choice being successful.

Simone’s transition from a difficult early childhood and foster care to a supportive adopted family changed her External Factors entirely. While she couldn’t control her early environment, she (and her support system) made choices that relocated her into an environment where her Personal Factors could thrive.

While you can’t necessarily change environmental factors in the moment, you can choose how to interact with and influence external factors over time and as opportunity arises: adapt, reframe, or relocate.

Single vs. Recurring Choices (SC + RC)

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — J.K. Rowling (Albus Dumbledore)

Not all choices are equal. Some are once-in-a-lifetime, others are recurring.

• Single Choices (SC): A rare opportunity. Accepting a dream job, saying yes to a marriage proposal, buying a home.

• Recurring Choices (RC): Decisions you face repeatedly. Going to the gym, saving money, choosing kindness.

Recurring choices may seem smaller, but they shape your life more profoundly. They build habits, character, and resilience. A single choice can change direction; recurring choices define the journey.

Simone Biles chose to become a Gymnast, a single monumental choice. She chose every day to train, study and learn, a recurring choice, that led her to greatness.

Willpower, Tenacity, Perseverance (W + Tn + P)

Even when personal and external factors align, success depends on how much effort you’re willing to exert. When you fail, what do you do next? Do you try again? Do you learn from it? Do you push through the challenge, or quit?

• Willpower: The ability to control impulses. (Study vs. binge Netflix.)

• Tenacity: The persistence to keep pushing. (Show up every day, even when it’s hard.)

• Perseverance: The resilience to try again after failure.

Bringing back our Simone Biles example once more. She had the willpower to complete a rigorous gymnastics training regime. When she was tired, she had the tenacity to keep pushing through. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Biles faced the “twisties”, a dangerous mental block. Her choice to withdraw and subsequent return to win gold in 2024 was the ultimate display of Perseverance.

These qualities compound the effect of your choice and determine if some choices are a onetime event into failure or a recurring choice leading to eventual growth and success. Without them, even favorable opportunities can slip away.

The Window of All Choices, Time (T)

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” ― Michael Altshuler

Time changes everything. For the purposes of choice, time is also one dimensional. A choice made at 20 isn’t the same as the same choice made at 60. Time dictates if an opportunity is a single event or if you get recurring choices.

• More time = more options. You can prepare, plan, and recover from failure.

• Less time = pressure. Decisions must be made quickly, often with incomplete information.

For Mrs. Biles, if she had decided to become an Olympic Gymnast at 30, the window of choice would have been closed. She started young, she had time to train and prepare. Time was her ally.

Time doesn’t stop, but perspective can stretch it. Planning ahead slows down time by giving more options and opportunities. Ignoring the future accelerates it, forcing you into reactive decisions.

Choices are a constant stream moving from the future to the past. You will have the opportunity to make a choice, you are making a choice, and you have made a choice. Time can be your greatest ally in making the best choices or the permanent barrier in between.

The Ripple Effect of Choices (∑C)

“When you take risks, you learn that there will be times when you succeed, and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” — Ellen DeGeneres

Every choice creates ripples, some predictable, others not. A single decision might open opportunities or close them permanently.

• Saying “yes” to one job offer may prevent another down the road.

• Choosing to study abroad might lead to meeting a lifelong partner.

• Dropping out of college may seem like failure, but for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, it opened a new path.

What matters is not perfection, but engagement. Active choices, even when they fail, generate ripples that create future opportunities. Inaction generates nothing but regret.

I don’t think I need to spell out all the compounding choices in Simone Biles life led her down a path to become a great gymnast. Did she miss out on some opportunities along the way. Absolutely. She trained and studied long and hard. She did not party or have a normal school experience. I think she would also likely make all the same choices again if provided the choice.

Conclusion: The Math of Meaning

Life isn’t an exact equation. But thinking of choices in framework helps demystify the complexity. You see what you can control (personal factors, effort, recurring habits) and what you can’t (external events, timing). When you stop viewing life as a series of random accidents and start viewing it as a calculation of variables, you regain agency.

You are the pilot of your life. The weather will change. The runway might be crowded. But your training, resilience, and ability to choose will ultimately determine where you land.

The formula doesn’t eliminate chaos — it gives you a framework to face it with courage and clarity. And that’s what separates those who drift from those who soar.

1. Map Your Factors. List your personal strengths and weaknesses. Identify external supports and obstacles.

2. Separate Single from Recurring Choices. Don’t give recurring choices less weight. They are where habits are built.

3. Audit Your Effort. Are you applying willpower, tenacity, and perseverance consistently, or only when convenient?

4. Leverage Time. Start early. Plan ahead. Use long-term vision to multiply your options.

5. Accept Ripple Effects. No choice is final. Each creates new options, even from failure.