Don’t make important decisions when...

There are 2 factors that define how our lives play out

1. The quality of our decisions
2. Luck (how the outcomes turn out)

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Honestly speaking, the first point is the only thing under our control, we have no control if we get lucky or not.

This means we could never influence how the outcomes turn out when a lot of variables (i.e external factors) are involved in the outcome.

So, if we need good lives we need to make sure we make good decisions with all the information we have.

Good decisions mean being aware of your biases, avoiding common decision traps, blindspots and heuristics and making a sound judgement which usually most people can’t.

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Now to give you a gist, we have 2 minds, 1 is the reflexive mind (which makes snap judgements, is primitive in nature and requires minimal energy) and 2nd is the deliberative mind (which makes sound judgements, but as it is deliberative it takes will, conscious energy and a lot of time)

As the human species (homo sapiens) have progressed ahead, we have developed a pre-frontal cortex which does the conscious thinking part of our decision making, but the layer of this part of the brain is still very thin which makes it difficult for it to make a lot of conscious decisions.

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Now, when we try to make a lot of sound judgements, it requires a lot of conscious effort, and a lot of energy will be utilized and that is something our brain doesn’t want.

Our brain does this because of its survival instincts. Our brain wants to preserve its energy so that we can survive if we don’t get food or we have to run away from predators (which made sense when our ancestors roamed wild in the savannah)

But now, if we keep on preserving our energy and make hard decisions based on the reflexive mind, we will end up in a rabbit hole full of miserable problems

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And to avoid this, you have to make sure and be aware that you don’t make hard or irreversible decisions when you are low on energy, hungry or emotional.

When you make decisions while you are hungry or low on energy, your brain will switch the decision-maker from the deliberative mind to the reflexive mind because now its primary focus is to conserve as much energy as possible.

And as the reflexive mind uses less energy and makes snap judgements, it uses mental heuristics and shortcuts to do so which works when the stakes are low but can be disastrous when the stakes are high and the decision cannot be reversed.

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So, make decisions when you have a stomach full or have high energy.

When we are emotionally high, it gives a false sense of high energy which is usually not the case, emotions are not based on reason and logic and hence it is not governed by the pre-frontal cortex, therefore the reflexive mind takes ownership and will make snap decisions in cases when you are very emotional.

Therefore, we often regret decisions which we make while we are emotional.

So in a nutshell, to lead a good life (excluding places where luck doesn’t work in your favour), don’t make decisions when

1. You are hungry or low on energy
2. You are emotional

Trust me, if you follow this, you will thank me for your lifetime.

Thank you for patiently reading and do let me know if you have any other perspective to share.