How to Make Decisions Like a Pro and 5x Your Quality of Life
Analyzing how good decision-makers operate.
On average, every single day we make 35,000 decisions.
Whether it’s related to our finances, health or relationships, making the right decision often means exponentially improving your life.
Now imagine if you became 1% better at making decisions… Okay, what about 5% better?
Your life would change for the better in ways that are hard to imagine once you apply the power of compound interest.
At the end of the day, the main difference between you, and a high achiever like Mark Zuckerberg, is that he made different, and better decisions throughout his life that led him to great success.
Let’s explore the true power of decision-making, and how we can improve that skill.
“Your legacy is being written by yourself. Make the right decisions.” - Gary Vaynerchuk
The power of a good decision.
If you think deeply, making a decision is a way to exert power. This power allows us to shape our destiny, business, family life, and environment as a whole.
By making the right decision you can lead your business to a new level of success, which allows it to employ more people and create life-changing innovations.
In your personal life, it can be the difference between a happy life, and a life full of regret. Knowing you made the wrong decision is a pain that many people live with.
Every decision, no matter how small, can set you slightly off course in a different (and sometimes wrong) direction.
Let’s use the laser pointer metaphor as an example.
Point it at the moon. If you move your hand 1cm, it’s a small movement, but the movement on the moon is miles.
The same is true with decisions. A small decision can push you in a completely different direction in the long run.
How to make better decisions.
Now that we have gone over how powerful a single decision can be, the next thing to do is figure out how we can get better at making decisions.
The following are proven ways to improve your decision-making ability. Many of these are practiced by the ultra-successful.
Reflect often
The best way to learn from your mistakes is to reflect on them deeply and review what went wrong. When you practice reflecting on your mistakes you can see what the right decision would have been.
See what I’m getting at?
You can only get better from your failures if you adapt. Yet, few people actually take the time to reflect thoroughly.
There are many different ways you can reflect, but journaling and meditating are the most common.
By journaling, you give yourself the chance to slowly go through your head. You are then able to read through what you wrote afterwards and give it a further analysis. This is an extremely thorough way to reflect.
Meditating is my favourite technique to reflect though.
There is something remarkably peaceful and straightforward about closing your eyes and going through the potential scenarios. That way you can see if there could have been a better decision.
By reflecting often, you will be able to make better decisions in the future, based on your decisions of the past.
Read every day
Why learn from your failures when you can learn from the failures of others?
That’s what reading allows you to do.
Personally, if I want to work on my ability to make decisions, I will read history books or biographies. These books allow you to read through exactly what others have done. Of course, self-help books can help you make good decisions too.
For example, you can read through Richard Branson’s biography and spot where you would like to take a risk, and not. He is known for giving nearly every business a shot and having many that failed.
Now, you might not want to take the same path as Richard Branson. It was not easy, and definitely not for everyone. So, reading through his biography you can see where he made poor decisions that led to some of those failures and gain from those insights.
History books can do the same thing. What decisions did leaders make in the past that led to catastrophic mistakes?
You can learn from Julius Caesar, Alexander The Great, Napolean and more!
Work on your health
It’s no secret that you make better decisions if you are healthy and in a good state of mind, so pay attention to what makes you feel good.
You might have noticed you make poor decisions when you drink alcohol or have a bad night's sleep. So, either reduce alcohol and get better sleep, or save the important decisions for when you are rested, and sober.
I always recommend that you should never make an important decision when you are hungover. Most people are more emotional and tend to make bad decisions the day after drinking.
There are of course many ways you can remain in a good state of mind.
Meditate
Eat healthy
Workout often
Stay hydrated
Get good sleep
Take cold showers
Reduce alcohol intake
Remaining in good health is of course also in your best interest to improve your health life, but when you start to take into consideration how much making good decisions adds up…
It’s a no-brainer.
Take your time, or don’t
You don’t need to rush your decisions. There are some decisions that take more time and that’s okay. Often you just need to sleep on it or take a moment to really go through it.
Take your time on important decisions because you never know the trickle effects that decision could have.
However, it’s important to note that some decisions don’t deserve as much attention. Those decisions you should practice making quickly.
For example, if you are debating between Coke and Sprite, don’t spend 5 minutes. Make that decision immediately.
You don’t want to waste your brain power on useless decisions because it’ll take away from the important ones.
That’s why Steve Jobs only wore black turtle necks. He didn’t want to waste his energy on making borderline useless decisions every day when he had so many important ones to make.
By practicing to make decisions quicker on the “useless” ones, you are working out the decision-making muscle as well.
Learn to take your time with important decisions, and be as quick as possible with others.
“If you can’t decide, the answer is no.” - Naval Ravikant
Talk to those you look up to
In our lives, there are many people we look up to. Talk to those people closely to learn how they make decisions. By learning where they went wrong or made the greatest decision of their lives, we can then adjust how we operate.
Talk to those you look up to, take notes and adjust accordingly to suit how you want to live.
Implement effective frameworks
There are numerous frameworks you can use to help yourself make better decisions. Now, these might not be applicable when you’re trying to pick between a burger and a chicken sandwich, but when making important decisions, some of these frameworks can be extremely helpful.
I personally keep it simple.
The 80/20 rule (Pareto Analysis) applies almost everywhere in life, and decision-making is no exception. Spend 80% of your effort or brain power, on the top 20% of your most important decisions (the most important ones).
Alternatively, make a pros and cons list. This is an easy way to lay out the potential outcome of your decision helping you pick properly.
Other popular frameworks for decision-making include:
There is more than just decisions
I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. Your life path depends on more than just your decisions.
Just because you are as good at making decisions as Michael Jordan, doesn’t mean you’ll be the greatest basketball player ever. Other factors play into the outcome of your decisions as well such as luck, genetics, your environment, and the people around you.
With that in mind, regardless of where you are in life, or who you are, it is still in your best interest to make the best decisions you can, since it is one of the few things that are in your control.
Conclusion
Decision-making is an incredibly important ability. By perfecting this art, you can live the best possible life.
For those such as myself, who are in pursuit of never-ending constant self-improvement, this is the best place to start.
By following the guidelines above, you will be better equipped to make the best decisions possible. Keep in mind though that you will end up making poor decisions along the way, and that is why reflection is so important.
Thanks for reading
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