One thing that I've realized about myself and about people in general is that
we're incredibly irrational creatures.
People are making bad decisions constantly. I think this is a major reason why
we have so many hilarious videos that show up online ,
but on the other hand this is kind of an alarming idea
because at some level I'd like to be able to trust myself in the decisions that I make,
but if I'm irrational then I can't do that.
Luckily I think there's actually a lot that you and I can do about this.
One of the major reasons why I'm
interested and attracted to the idea of mental clarity is because it has a very direct and
obvious impact on things like decision making and decisions are how we shape our lives.
There's nothing worse than feeling paralyzed or stuck.
What I'm realizing though is that there's a lot more that goes into mental clarity than originally thought.
It's really not just making good decisions and having good habits :
there's an emotional side to things and honestly
I think there's a spiritual aspect to all of this as well.
At some level where you are right now is the result of all the decisions that you've made up to this point, right?
So I think it's a worthy goal to strive towards being as clear minded as possible, whatever that means.
And so that's why I decided to start a new series that I'm calling :
I'm making this for selfish reasons. I want to be a better human being and I want to get more out of life.
Today, I'm gonna focus on decision making because I've made some really bad choices in the past,
and it would be lovely to do that at least a little bit less often moving forward.
So what I've done is I've compiled six techniques or things to keep in mind,
that I use to help myself make better decisions or at the very least
give myself better loans.
Human decision-making is a very complex topic and there's just way too much to cover in one single video
so consider this level one on the subject a primer for things before we delve deeper
This really is not rocket science, but just like pretty much everything else in life
I find that simplicity can be pretty effective.
Daniel Pink in his book "When", talks about this concept of a trough.
It's something that we all go through in the day. It happens usually seven hours after waking up.
This is where we encounter a drop in
Energy levels and this corresponds with bad, really bad decision-making.
Of course this depends on your circadian rhythm, but according to him he suggests making decisions
especially important ones in the morning when you're going through a peak.
He goes more in depth as to why that is in his book and I highly recommend it.
I got this from Greg McEwan who got this from Derek Siver's and
he said that this is great criteria for people that feel scattered or over committed in life
I also think this is highly applicable to people with a little bit of career momentum already
(because it's important to protect your time), and also for calculated risks.
We're all going to have reservations when we're diving into the unknown,
but
I think that if you have that feeling of Hell Yes within you, you've got to own it.
Now, of course this doesn't work for everybody and it doesn't work for every circumstance
This is not bulletproof, you know life is nuanced
But I find that it helps me because I feel like I have a tendency to commit to things too quickly.
Lately, people pitch me all kinds of ideas
I get sponsorship requests on a daily basis and if I feel lukewarm about something then that's
almost certainly a sign that there's a better way for me to commit my time and energy and money elsewhere.
If I just accepted every offer that came my way even good offers then,
First of all It would be absolutely overwhelming
but I think I would also risk the trust that I built up with you guys: my audience.
So I think that it's maybe not a bad idea to start with no and give yourself some time to sort of reflect on things
before moving forward and I never thought I would say that
as the guest person that I am, but, I think I'm starting to realize the power that the word know can wield.
Here's how Ben Franklin did this
You're almost certainly already familiar with this.
According to him he would take three to four days to fully compile this list,
which I think that if you have the time is really not a bad idea
Here's where he takes things one step further than most of us:
He would assess every pro and con and give them a value based on their importance to him
This makes perfect sense, you know, it's really clever because it's true certain characteristics certain factors
have more importance to us in our decision-making process.
And so they should be treated that way. The way he would do this
is he would take one or more factors on each side
that had what he felt was equivalent weight in his view and crossed them out.
And ultimately the side that has more weight would end up winning, right ?
So you can do this with a yes or no scenario
or you can also apply this method to picking among a few really strong options.
I usually do this when I have a big life decision to make like for example when I'm trying to pick
the next country that I want to live in for three months.
The way I'll do this is all lay out the top three to five contenders
and write out the pros and cons for each one
I try to think about the full scope of the experience that I want to have
you know, it's not just about the climate or the things that there are to do nearby but
Do I speak the language?
Do I want to learn the language and spoke it in that country?
Is it a part of the world that I'm familiar with? This is very personal to me, but I am
really attracted to Latin culture not just in Latin America, but also southern Europe.
I feel very comfortable in that way of life,
you know, I'm a little guy I speak with my hands. I'm really loud. And so I just fit really well
I find that if I have spent a long time away from Latin culture that I really miss it
and so that particular factor holds more weight.
This is powerful in the way that journaling is powerful
You know, you might think that you can see everything clearly in your mind,
but there is no replacement to laying everything out plainly in front of you.
Based on my research online, I found that it takes anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes to calm down from the fight-or-flight response.
You're almost certainly already familiar with this, but here's a quick refresher
Your adrenal gland starts pumping the hormone epinephrine
(also commonly known as adrenaline), into your bloodstream.
There's results in things like quicker breathing like a heart rate and increased blood pressure.
When you're going through this you are literally not thinking clearly you have a hormone in your bloodstream
that is preventing you for being rational.
This is the worst time to make a decision and anything that you can do to create space and time to cool off
will almost certainly help so whatever that is for you if it's a stress ball if it's taking a walk if it's breathing deeply,
even if you can't do 20 minutes : 5 minutes or even like 90 seconds
can really make a big difference.
For me it has occasionally been the difference between saying something really stupid that I totally regret
and holding my tongue.
In the book "Why we sleep" which I recommend, I've already spoken about.
And recently, I've been seeing recommended all over the place. Matthew Walker talks about all the
incredible benefits of sleep. I'm gonna create a piece going way more in depth on this
but I wanted to mention a couple of things that stood out to me the author talks about how in REM sleep
our brains go through this process of connecting the dots between distant and
unrelated thoughts and memories.
This is an amazing way to find creative solutions because you're seeing things in a new light.
And beyond that he talks a lot about the link between proper sleep and emotional well-being
And one again, I think that well being especially emotionally speaking
can really help you at the very least avoid bad decisions, it's all connected.
I recommend learning about psychology
I just find it fascinating to learn about how I operate on a day to day basis.
It turns out that our hardware is highly imperfect and that's what things like marketing seek to exploit.
Here are a few examples:
Anchoring is one of my favorites
Look, I'm not an expert on any of this and I'm not exactly sure what the best way is to apply all this information
however
I do think that awareness is a great place to start even just knowing about these things can potentially help you prevent traps
I think it's really fun. I've made it a game kind of to look for and spot psychology in action.
It's very satisfying to spot something that was meant to trick me
and effectively avoid it.
I want to give one more piece of advice that I'm currently trying to apply in my own life right now.
I recently heard that there is nothing in life that is worth rushing for and
I have yet to find an exception to that rule. I hope that you found this helpful. I know I packed a lot in here.
Originally, the idea was just to create a little piece with some tips, but then it dawned on me
just how important decision making is. If you enjoyed this I'd love for you to stick around,
and there's a variety of ways that you can potentially do that like following me on Instagram signing up to my newsletter
or even just subscribing to this channel.
I also want to give a major shout out to all of my Patreons:
you guys are seriously helping me make this a reality and I am just so grateful for your support.
All right. Thank you for watching. I'll see you soon !