6 Mindsets To Make Better Decisions
It is estimated that the average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day. That’s insane.
What’s even more insane is that most adults don’t have any proven frameworks to make good decisions.
Without a toolbox of methods we can use to help us, we are bound to make silly mistakes which can be incredibly taxing mentally, financially and emotionally.
In this article, I will aim to equip you with a set of frameworks I have developed to guide me in this decision-heavy world. They have helped me enormously, and I hope they will do the same to you.
Easy choices lead to hard lives; hard choices lead to easy lives
Before we start, it helps to have a general rule for what to do more of.
The biggest and best piece of advice I would give is that easy choices lead to hard lives and hard choices lead to easy lives.
Generally speaking, if you are not being challenged and taking an easy option, you will suffer the consequences of your lack of ambition in the future.
This applies to almost everything — fitness, studying, relationships, etc. The easier the option, the more appealing the immediate outcome, but the more difficulties you will face in the future.
You can choose to skip going to the gym and not have to go through that pain, but you will definitely not feel as good as if you had pushed yourself and actually gone.
Same with studying. You can skip your study sesh and enjoy a nice Netflix show instead, but when the test comes along and you fail your exam, you will end up having to catch up and your life will be miserable.
So, always try and choose the most challenging option that gives you the most room to grow as a person.
Now with that out of the way, let’s get into the mindsets.
Seek objectivity as much as possible
It is important to remember that most people believe what they want to believe and will only search for evidence that corroborates their pre-existing beliefs.
When we want something to be true, we undervalue conflicting evidence and go to great lengths to find data supporting our belief.
Don’t do this.
Instead, seek objective evidence as much as you can.
Try to put your biases aside. Try to ignore your inner desire for the expected outcome and evaluate all of the evidence with an unbiased mind. It may be difficult, but you are much better off making a decision that reflects the data than making one because of an emotional attachment.
This will help you make the best, most informed decisions that will benefit your life.
Humans hate doubt, but doubt is good!
Humans dislike doubt.
It is emotionally stressful and leaves an unpleasant feeling. To reduce doubt as much as possible, we make quick, irrational decisions that stop us from feeling it. In the moment, we are happy to have made a decision as we no longer have that pesky feeling to deal with. But more often than not, we make the wrong decision as we rush to a conclusion.
This shows that doubt is not to be avoided.
Doubt is a good thing. It helps us make the most informed decisions.
So next time you have doubt, do not rush to a decision to eliminate the feeling and make a choice. Let the doubt linger. Give yourself time to analyse the evidence and make the most informed decision.
It may be unpleasant, but the better decision is always worth it.
Recent evidence does not make it more valuable
Our brains love recent information.
When presented with two pieces of equally valid information, the brain is likely to give more weight to the evidence it encountered most recently, even though it is no more accurate than the other data.
This is known as the recency bias.
It is a huge problem and affects people all the time. Political candidates use it frequently. They point to a recent success to gain support, even though they may have a long, lousy track record. They do this, especially approaching voting day. People sometimes forget who the person is and what they have done and opt in favour of the candidate because of their recent success.
Don’t be a victim of this bias.
Evaluate data objectively. If you find yourself leaning towards a particular option, ask yourself why. Is it because you recently found evidence supporting that option? If so, take a step back and verify if it is really the appropriate option.
If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no
Time is our most sacred asset. It is the only thing we will run out of, and we must take good care of it and ensure we use it appropriately.
In a constantly connected world, we are often asked to do things that we may not necessarily want to do. To not feel guilty, we reluctantly agree to social commitments we don’t necessarily want to go to.
Here’s my advice. Stop agreeing to everything.
If the proposition does not greatly excite you, your default answer should be a no. Your time is too precious. Don’t let it be wasted on activities you don’t want to be doing.
You may upset some people, but that it is not your fault.
Focus on the things that really matter. Focus on the things that fulfil you. Focus on the things that make you happy.
You only have so much time.
Use the vampire test
To decide whether something is worth your time, do the vampire test. If the thing (could be a person, hobby, job) makes you feel depleted of energy (in a bad way) at the end, then you should no longer do that thing or hang out with that person.
This is similar to the “hell yes” test. If you don’t really want to hang out with that person, don’t hang out with them. You don’t owe them anything, so why give them your most valuable asset?
Try and use this test more often to assess how and who you spend your time with.
If you think you have something to lose, remember death
We often choose not to take opportunities for fear that we have something to lose.
We won’t ask a burning question in class. We won’t offer to lead the next group presentation, and we certainly won’t ask our manager to start a new project.
What if we mess up? What if people laugh? What if the project is a complete failure? Our reputation is too sacred to put on the line like that.
Well, let me tell you a secret. It’s not.
In less than 100 years, you will probably be in a grave, and no one will remember any of your failures. You will just be one of the many billions of humans to have been born, grown and died here on planet earth. All those failures you thought would have been significant mean absolutely nothing now.
So go out there and seize opportunities. You do not have anything to lose by trying, but you have quite a lot to lose by not giving it a crack.
Don’t be one of the many people to die having not risked embarrassment for irrational fears.
Conclusion
I hope you gained something valuable from this article. These mindsets have drastically improved my decision-making and have considerably eased my peace of mind.
I now rarely regret wrong decisions, and I no longer fantasise about what could be. I don’t stress about making the wrong choice because I know that, more often than not, my decision-making toolbox has made it for me.
Here is a quick recap for you:
- Easy choices lead to hard lives; hard choices lead to easy lives: Don’t take the easy option. It will bring unforeseen obstacles in the future.
- Seek objectivity: In a world so full of noise, it can be hard to obtain objective evidence on a matter. Get it, evaluate it and let it inform your decisions.
- Humans hate doubt: Don’t avoid doubt. Doubt is good and will help you make better decisions.
- Recent evidence does not make it more valuable: New information does not bear any weight over equally valid, older information.
- If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no: Only do stuff you really want to do. Remember, your time is sacred.
- Use the vampire test: If the person, hobby or activity has made you feel depleted. AVOID.
- If you think you have something to lose, remember death: Death is right around the corner. Remember that next time you think you have something to lose.
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Thanks and have a great day!
Originally published at on July 25, 2022.
