Tag: decision-making

Smacked of indecision fatigue

November 25th, 2021

Eventually, we all succumb to indecision fatigue. The inability to make a decision exhausts one to the point of regret. Once the dam breaks, and we say “yes,” we accept the risk and burden of figuring it all out later.

There’s an incongruity between what we want and the fulfillment we expect it to bring. In reality, we’re better off thinking less, acting on what feels right, and then deducing whether it was a good call later.

In hesitation, we trip over ourselves. The mental exhaustion caused by indecision backlashes to produce nothing material. Otherwise, all we are is a result of what we think, a confused fence-sitter of nothingness.

The more decisions we make, the more feedback we have to play with. Gathering artifacts increase our power by reducing the what-if scenarios that paralyze the chronic over-thinking in the first place.

Only then can we pause and take a step back to reconsider all of our options. Armed with new information, the turned decider smacks back: indecision is still a decision.
On making life’s biggest decisions

May 20th, 2019

When it comes to decision-making, first you decide, then you deduce. Of course, life’s biggest decisions such as marriage or a career change are some of the hardest decisions to make because the fear is that they won’t work out. The bigger the risk, the greater the hesitation.

‘This might not work.’

People like to play it safe. It’s easier to adopt the status quo than playing the long game and facing the fear of uncertainty. Chance is risky. Change is scary.

We’re so scared of making a change that we outsource our decisions to other people. In other words, we seek their permission. Not surprisingly, our family members and peers recommend circling the race track rather than pursuing the labyrinth of self-discovery. Warns financial advisor and essayist/sketcher Carl Richards for the New York Times:

“People expect you to stay how you are, to maintain the status quo, to stay the course. And if you get bogged down looking for that affirmation to make a change, you may never make it.”

All believing is betting

People that do risk change — on their volition or because of a coin toss — usually end up thinking the best of it. When we change, we grow.

“Based on the results of tossing over 20,000 virtual coins, the study found that people were happier after making a major change, whether they did it because the coin forced their hand or because they decided on their own.”

The only person we need permission from is ourselves. Indecision is a decision, albeit, the wrong one. Still unsure? Here’s your permission slip.

“Whatever it is, you now have permission to do it.”

Read Hesitant to Make That Big Life Change, Permission Granted
Decisions are either ‘irreversible or reversible’

April 30th, 2018

Sometimes your work is just going to be a 5 out of 10. It’s not worth scrutinizing every performance. The only ill is hesitating, not starting what you think you should do.

Jeff Bezos has an interesting system for making decisions. He sees them as either irreversible or reversible. The simple heuristic pushed him to start Amazon, knowing that he could just go back to his old job if things didn’t work out. Writes the Farnam Street blog:

“Bezos considers 70% certainty to be the cut-off point where it is appropriate to make a decision. That means acting once we have 70% of the required information, instead of waiting longer. Making a decision at 70% certainty and then course-correcting is a lot more effective than waiting for 90% certainty.”

First we try, then we deduce

If the door swings both ways, why not give whatever we’re passionate about our best shot. The worst that can happen is that someone slams the door in our face or locks the other side. And that may be just the message that it’s time to pivot. They’re meant to astonish us, to jolt us out of our everyday thoughts:

We don’t need to collect all the information before we endeavor. We can reduce indecision by replacing it with the astonishment of doing. There is little reason to think in absolutes. Wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson: “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tag: decision-making

Smacked of indecision fatigue

On making life’s biggest decisions

‘This might not work.’

All believing is betting

Decisions are either ‘irreversible or reversible’

First we try, then we deduce