How can you make your map bigger?
THE FRAMEWORK
Every choice gets made on a map: the people, the time, and the feelings you can see in the moment. The Authentic Decision Field (ADF) is ChoiceUp’s science-informed way to make that map bigger before you decide.
Why the map shrinks
Think about a choice you’d make differently now. Odds are, you weren’t short on good sense. You were short on picture.
Maybe you were tired, or rushed, or hurt, or scared. The world shrank down to you, this moment, and this feeling. That’s a small map. On a small map, almost any choice can look like the right one.
You don’t need to try harder. You need to see more.
Look without judging
Most of us learned to grade our choices: good or bad, right or wrong, smart or dumb. So most of us learned to stop looking at the ones that went badly.
The ADF works the other way. It doesn’t ask what you did wrong. It asks what was driving the choice. That’s a question you can actually answer, and you can’t change what you won’t look at.
It isn’t a belief system, either. There’s nothing to sign up for and nothing to believe. The ADF is science-informed. It’s built on well-studied ideas about how people decide, like why right now feels louder than later. It works with whatever you already believe.
ChoiceUp is for people who would rather understand a choice than judge it, and who will slow down long enough to see who else is on the map.
HOW IT WORKS
The Four Questions
The ADF is a clear process, one you can learn, follow, and teach. It starts with four questions you can ask before any decision, quick or slow, at five or at eighty, in any order.
These four questions are where the ADF begins, not where it ends.
Once your map is bigger, the process shows you what to do with what you find. You learn how to weigh things that pull in different directions without judging them. You learn how to choose a path you could explain to someone you respect. And you learn when to come back and look again, which is why the change lasts. The ChoiceUp activity books guide kids through the process at a pace that fits their age.
And if you want to dig deeper into the ADF, the free Professional Framework Guide is available on ChoiceUp.org and it lays out the whole thing.
Carry it with you
Want to help spread the word? Wearing the message and sharing the activity books are two great ways to support ChoiceUp and carry the idea into everyday life. Every shirt starts a conversation, and every activity book gives a kid a bigger map to start from.
Wear What You Choose To Stand For
Shirts, hats, and sweatshirts that quietly start a bigger conversation. Wear your support anytime!
Shop Merch
Share It With The Kids In Your Life
The ChoiceUp activity books for ages 5–8, 9–12, and 13–18 are inspired by the ADF and sized to each age.
Shop The Activity BooksHelp bring it further. ChoiceUp’s nonprofit works to bring this framework to schools, counseling rooms, and rehabilitation programs at no cost to them. Moved by the mission? Support ChoiceUp’s nonprofit work at ChoiceUp.org.
Follow Along: One question at a time, on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Want to go deeper?
See the whole process. The free Professional Framework Guide on ChoiceUp.org walks through the full ADF at working depth. It’s written for counselors and educators, and anyone can download it there. → The Professional Framework Guide