By Ahsan
As Robert Frost famously wrote in his poem, “The Road Not Taken”:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
We are all one decision away from becoming a hero in our life. That said, we are also one decision away also
from becoming a zero or having a loss.
A good decision can help you avoid problems and take advantage of opportunities.
A wrong decision can ruin your future and destroy your chances of doing well in life.
As a general rule, try to make good decisions and avoid bad ones.
Sounds simple, but why do so many educated and well-meaning people screw up life?
Can you think of someone you know that ruined their life over a wrong turn in the road?
Remember, we should only care about our decisions if we care about having a good life.
So to make good decisions, you might like to do the following three things:
Avoid the bag of snakes: Identify the knowledge sources that help you make your decisions. For example, you might be deciding to make a career change or buy a big-ticket item. If you choose to research something online or in-person, ask yourself who is giving you advice? Is it coming from the smartest person in the room? The most honest person in the room or the most cunning?
Surely you want to put your hand into a satchel and pull out rubies and diamonds, not a handful of snakes.
Perform the marshmallow test on yourself again: If a four-year-old can show discipline to not eat a marshmallow for a 5 minutes, so they can get three marshmallows as a reward (and grow up to be a winner), can't you do that too now that you are all grown up?
Can you withhold instant gratification and pause for thought and contemplation? The pause can help you come to a rational decision that is less instinct-driven and more emotionally balanced. Be a decision-maker that can move quickly after some due consideration.
Don’t fly a kite in a hurricane: Do you feel your mental state is right to make a good decision?
If you are under stress, you expose yourself to poor thinking, and your decisions will be low quality. If you are angry or upset, ditto. Instead, get calm and sleep on it.
After calming down and letting the storm pass, you might like to make a pro vs. cons list or even listen to your gut feeling to arrive at a more measured decision.
Ultimately, there is no guaranteed way to guarantee your decisions will be right but to be aware that decisions disproportionately affect how life goes is essential.
Can you think of other ideas that have helped you make good decisions? Please share some things that have helped you so that we might share them forward soon.
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