Start, Stay, or Leave

**Author:** Trey Gowdy

**Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:** How to make life's most important decisions with clarity and confidence by defining your destination, understanding your values, and knowing when to commit, when to persevere, and when to walk away.

**Who This Book Is For:** Anyone standing at a crossroads. Whether you are deciding on a career change, evaluating a relationship, considering a move, or simply wondering if you are on the right path, this book provides a framework for thinking through the choices that shape your life.

Every day you make decisions. Most are small and inconsequential. What to eat for breakfast. Which route to take to work. Whether to respond to that email now or later. These choices rarely keep you up at night. But then there are the other decisions. The ones that sit heavy in your chest. Should you take the new job or stay where you are? Should you end the relationship or give it another chance? Should you move to a new city or remain close to family? Should you start the business you have been dreaming about or keep the security of a steady paycheck? These are the decisions that define a life. And most people approach them poorly. Trey Gowdy spent nearly two decades as a prosecutor, making decisions that carried enormous consequences. He sent people to prison. He sought justice for victims. He stood before juries and made arguments that determined the course of human lives. Later, as a four-term congressman and committee chairman, he made decisions that affected millions of people. He knows something about the weight of choice. But this book is not about law or politics. It is about something more fundamental. It is about how you decide. Gowdy noticed something during his years in public service. The people who made the best decisions, the ones who seemed most at peace with their choices, shared a common trait. They knew where they were going. They had a clear picture of their destination. And every decision they made was measured against that picture. The people who struggled, who bounced from job to job, relationship to relationship, city to city, were different. They were making decisions in isolation. Each choice was disconnected from the others. They had no compass, no north star, no sense of where they ultimately wanted to end up. This book offers a different approach. It begins with a simple but profound exercise. Imagine your funeral. Picture the people who would gather. Listen to what they would say about you. What would you want them to say? What kind of person do you want to be remembered as? What legacy do you want to leave?…