When I went to school I learned to read, and I learned how to write. I even learned how to speak French (c’est vrai). But the one thing my teachers, counselors and even the lunch ladies never taught me was how to do was make good decisions. If yours taught you, then you can probably skip the rest of this, but I’m still going to offer a bit of blather on this topic because that’s my Sunday jam.
So Many Decisions…
There are a lot of decisions we make in life, and we make them for a variety of reasons. Some decisions are for our survival, some are in pursuit of our person, some are to make sure we have enough money when we get old, and some so that we just feel pretty for a moment. There are lots of different kinds of decisions you will make in your life, and they will serve you in just as many ways, so decision-making is a pretty important piece of technology.
You might make good decisions and you might not, but either way, here are 5 things about making good decisions that my handlers never taught me.
The Five
1. The Nature of a Decision
The first thing to know about decisions is that decisions are binary – you either decide or you don’t. You don’t “try” to pick up the pen, you either pick it up or you don’t. In the same way, you don’t kind of ask a customer to buy from you, you don’t sort of kind of ride a bike, and you don’t barely skydive. You either do or you don’t. If you want to be a smarty pants and remind me that not making a decision is also a decision, you just go right ahead. When you do, just know that you’ve you made a decision not to make a decision, and that in itself was also a decision (gotcha).
2. Go to the Other Side
No one facing a big decision ever said, “Boy, I hope I totally blow this one”. Of course not. We don’t just want to make decisions; we want to make good decisions. My second piece of advice and a paramount rule of good decision making is to seek the counsel of those who disagree with you. That’s right – who disagree with you.
The best decisions you make are the ones that bring you no future regrets. Asking someone you disagree with for their advice is the best way to achieve that future outcome. It isn’t easy, in fact, it takes a certain amount of bravery to seek and listen to the opinions of those with who you disagree, but if you want to make a good decision, this is exactly what you must do.
3. Separate the C from the C.
One thing I did learn in school was this: “If A = B, and B = C, then A = C.” I was in 3rd grade at the time, and this was my first introduction causation and correlation.
Forty years later I was sitting on a chairlift at Deer Valley, Utah next to a scientist who brought me back to the classroom I was it at age 9 about causation and correlation, but this time he told me how the two are often confused in decision making. Just because two things are correlated doesn’t mean one caused the other. In other words, just because you believe something is true, it shouldn’t be introduced into your decision matrix until you clearly identify it as being causatory and not simply correlated. If this makes no sense at all, then just skip this one.
4. Consider the “Longer Now”
Some decisions carry long term implications…the car you buy, the spouse you pick, the dentist you see. There’s nothing wrong with making a quick decision – I make them all the time, but before you sign on the dotted line, put the ring on her finger, or open your mouth to suck on the drill, press pause and consider the longer-term implications.
I recently saw a podcast interview with a forensic neurologist. She was studying how ancient native American tribes make decisions for the group: they considered the impact for four generations after the decision. Not four years, four generations! I saw another podcast where Jeff Bezos was talking about how he’s always thinking 3 months into the future. He did pretty well.
5. Check In
Finally, each of us has an endowment that we don’t always use in decision making, but we should. That endowment in our intuition. Our gut. Our 6th sense. It’s not a bunch of hocus-pocus, it’s actually a real thing. According to neuroscientist and psychologist Joel Pearson, intuition is, “The learned, positive use of unconscious information for better decisions or actions.” Using unconscious information as a tool for better decision making? Who’da thought?
As animals, we’re pretty useless for about the first 18 years of our existence (some longer). As we grow up, we collect experiences and memories. Places we’ve been, people we’ve met, things we’ve seen, smells we’ve smelled, all of that. It’s this collection of our unconscious that serves us in future decision making. You have this channel on your radio, all you have to do is pay attention to it.
The Touchstones
Decision making is an important technology. The decisions you make will shape your life; some might even say they are the touchstones on the path to your destiny. Take a minute today and reflect on your decisions…how you make them, how you don’t, whether they’re short or long, how they affect others, all of that. Thanks for making the decision to read what I had to share today. I appreciate you.
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2024.02.25
Cite
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. Your fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do.”
– Amelia Earhart