How to Make the Tough Decisions You Know You Need to Make
by Danny Forest
1. The Number One Reason We Make Bad Decisions
1.1. When social pressure drives your decision, you’re making the wrong decision.
2. More Reasons Why You Make Bad Decisions
2.1. Anytime you “cave” you do it because you don’t trust yourself.
2.2. You won’t make tough decisions because, deep down, you have that caveman brain that thinks you’re going to die alone in the wilderness if you face a little social rejection.
3. The Most Justifiable Reason for Making Bad Decisions
3.1. Your decisions affect those around you. You have to fight really hard to take an objective look at your life. Understand that your decisions cause collateral damage either way.
4. The Counterintuitive Benefits of Making Selfish Choices
4.1. The selfish approach often works better than martyrdom or sinking time and effort into a situation that’s not working.
4.2. Boundaries, based often on the decision to say “no”, are better for not only you but the people you say no to.
4.3. Making a bad decision and continuing to commit to it just make things worse.
5. Hell Yes or Hell No
5.1. Question What Place Your Decisions Are Coming From
5.1.1. Why are you leaning toward a certain choice?
5.1.2. Is it out of guilt? Do you feel like you have to say yes because you owe someone something?
5.1.3. Are you afraid of alienation for saying no? Remember, you can probably handle it.
5.1.4. Are you making this decision because you trust yourself, or because you don’t?
5.1.5. Would the truly actualized and brutally self-aware version of yourself make this decision? Why or why not?
5.2. Always Think Long-Term
5.2.1. Each decision, or series of decisions, you make usually comes back around if you wait long enough.
5.2.2. You don’t get out of shape by eating a single cheeseburger. If you did, you wouldn’t eat them. But, slowly or surely, if you eat enough of them, your decision will come back to haunt you.