What is the discernment tool? What is it meant to be used for?

This process is meant to help people with discerning the best choice/s to make according to ciamkodo. It follows a similar format to a pro/con list, with some additional steps. If a part of this is unhelpful for you, feel free to adjust for yourself.

1. Make a list of all the choices you could make in this situation, given what you know. Include as many choices as you can think of, to avoid ignoring any potential solutions.
2. Make a list of everyone who will be affected by this choice. This includes people or groups of people, as well as non-human living beings if applicable. You should include yourself in this list.
3. Make a chart listing the ways that making one choice will help anyone in that list, and the ways it will harm anyone in that list. This should include as many ways as you can think of. Ideally, do this for every potential choice.
4. Describe what the best possible results for this situation could/will be. Look at the benefits list/s and imagine what the most ideal outcome would be.
5. Make a list of the actions you need to take in order to get the best possible results. What would it take in order to get the most out of the potential benefits? How could you offset the potential harms?

Example: I drove to a party and am now drunk, but I want to go home. It is late at night. I do not know the people at this party very well, except for a few people.

Choices to be made: Drive home myself, find someone sober and ask them to drive me home, pay for a ride home, call someone to see if they can pick me up, stay at the party until the morning

People involved: Myself, other people at the party, other drivers on the road, owner of the house, friends, family, potentially the police

Drive myself home:

• Healing: Can leave whenever I want, won't have to worry about getting the car back to my house
• Harm: Could crash the car/get into an accident and hurt or killsomeone, could get arrested for drunk driving, could get my license suspended

Find someone sober:

• Healing: Wont have to worry about drunk driving
• Harm: Most people here are some level of drunk, not sure if anyone is willing, would have to leave on their schedule, might not know how to get to my house, my car would be left behind

Pay for a ride:

• Healing: Won't have to worry about drunk driving, can leave (more or less) whenever I want
• Harm: Have to pay for the ride, might not trust the driver, my car would be left behind

Call someone:

• Healing: Won't have to worry about drunk driving, will probably be someone I trust who knows where I live, can leave (more or less) whenever I want
• Harm: Might not be anyone available, might wake them up, they might be too drowsy to drive safely, my car would be left behind

Stay at the party:

• Healing: Won't have to worry about drunk driving, won't have to worry about getting home, able to drive my car home in the morning
• Harm: House owner might not want me sleeping at their house, don't not trust the people at the party enough to sleep around them, if I have something to do the next morning it might be harder to do it on time if I'm far from home

The best possible results out of these options would be: Get home without driving myself, while being as safe as possible.

How to get the best possible results: Either find someone sober enough to drive and ask them to take me home, call someone to pick me up, or pay for a ride. If I am finding someone, I need to make sure they are sober enough to drive and know where my house is. If I am calling someone, I need to make sure they are awake enough to drive safely and know where the party is. If I am paying for a ride, I should tell someone just in case something happens during the ride, or maybe call someone during the ride to make sure there's someone aware of the situation. I should also tell the owner of the house, or ask someone to tell them, that I have to leave my car behind. I could get another ride over the next morning to pick it up and drive it home.