Three Keys to (Much) Better Decisions - Tony Schwartz - Harvard Business Review
Stumbled on the post/link above and found myself nodding almost throughout the article. You should give it a read, totally worth it.
We are saddled with the responsibility of decision making every minute of the day. What to wear, what to say, how to say it, choice of words, use of make-up, choice of hairstyles, when to start a task, when to kiss ass, when to play the game of office politics and to what degree, when to throw in the towel in a relationship or at work.
The elements that lead to the decision itself is a enough to give you a headache or a heart attack depending on the pressures that abound at the moment the decision has to be made.
Take the formally leisurely act of shopping. It has become an unending episode of decision making. I go to the shop to buy a box of cereal, and i get burgled down with having to make a choice between the over 15 Kellogg's products and every other cereal manufacturer.
This happened to me just last week, I went shopping for a cereal high in fibre and i was stuck because right before was Sultana Bran, All Bran, Bran Flakes and 2 other brands i can't recall. All the boxes said they were high in fibre so i was spoiled for choice.
In my personal life I have often shied away from making decisions and tried to move the responsibility to a third party so when it turns out to have been a bad decision, I can think to myself and say "I didn't do that or it wasn't my fault". Not mature, I know and trust me not effective either.
I also have come to observe that I make the worse decisions when I am upset or hormonally imbalanced. And annoyingly, I can't take back those actions/decisions once they have been done.
Tony is right, when we calm down, breathe and think through our decisions we tend to have less actions to regret. Its easier said than done, I know that more than anyone, but it would make things a whole lot easier don't you think.
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