5 Easy Ways to Make Better Choices Every Day

You're faced with a tough decision. Do you watch this video and try to better yourself, or do you turn on your PlayStation and scratch that itch of trying to build an epic roller coaster in Minecraft? Decisions like these come and go hundreds of times over the course of your day. So how do you know when you're making the right decision? Well, in this video, I'm going to show you 5 ways to start making better choices. These are evidence-based strategies to help you gain more clarity and confidence when you're facing a tough decision. Let's get started. Number 1. This is my single favorite technique for making decisions, especially in your personal life. It helps you surmount what's known in psychology as Solomon's Paradox, named after King Solomon, who was this wise, sagacious, judicious figure who totally messed up his own life. We human beings tend to be pretty good problem solvers, but we're less good at solving our own problems. We're too close to it. We see too many of the details. When we assess our own problems, we act too much like scuba drivers, and what we want to be is oceanographers seeing the big picture. And one way to do that is to get some distance from yourself. And here's my favorite technique: when you're stuck on a decision, ask yourself, "What would I tell my best friend to do?" Very quickly, you will know because you're putting yourself outside of yourself and looking at your problem like an outsider. Many times, people come to me for. for advice, they describe their problem and I just say this, well, what would you tell your best friend to do? And they immediately know. Number 2, this technique applies more forcefully in the workplace, in professional settings. And it comes from a story from the legendary Andy Grove, who was the CEO of Intel in his heyday. When he was faced with a tough decision and needed to overcome Solomon's Paradox, he would ask himself this question: if I were replaced tomorrow, what would my successor do? And he always knew. And it was always to be a little bit bolder and to do the right thing. And so when you are in a tough spot at work and you're not sure what to do, ask yourself, if you were replaced tomorrow, what would your successor do? If someone else took over your job, if someone else took over your organization, what would they do? And you know it's almost certainly to be a little bit bolder, to be a little bit tougher, to do the harder things. Third technique. In our professional lives and even in our personal lives, I think that we're over-indexed on how and under-indexed on why. When we get stuck, either personally or professionally, our natural instinct is to say, how can I do this better? How can I solve this problem? How can I fix this? And that's okay, but there's ample evidence showing that when we understand the purpose of what we're doing, when we understand the big picture, when we understand the intention, we do a lot better. And so my suggestion to you is twice a week when you're stuck, convert the how To a why. Example, let's say you hit a creative block. You can't figure it out. How can I finish writing this? How can I make this video better? Take a step back and say, why am I writing this? Why am I making this video? That will give you perspective and big picture thinking to help you solve the problem. This even works in your personal life. Let's say that you and your partner have divvied up tasks and your job is to clean the house. Now, naturally you're gonna say, how can I clean this house? Or how can I clean this house faster? Or how can I get away with doing the least amount of work? What I wanna suggest to you is change the how every once in a while to a why. Why are you cleaning up this house? You're cleaning up this house because this house is a reflection of the life you built with your partner. You're cleaning up this house because you love your partner and you owe your partner certain kinds of duties, and this is an expression of love. When we switch from how to why, we can unblock ourselves, we can see the big picture, and we can do things a little bit better. You don't have to do this every single time. How is valuable. Just 2 times a week, when you find yourself saying how, change it to why. Number 4, let's say you're at a juncture in your professional life. You're maybe contemplating a career transition. How do you make that decision? Typically what people will advise us is to ask ourselves, what's your passion? And that is a truly I don't like asking that question. I certainly don't like receiving that question because I don't think passion matters. I think the better question is this: where can I make my biggest contribution? Because that gets you out of your own head, says, what can I contribute to the world? But what it also does is it forces you to see your strengths and how you can deploy your strengths to do something valuable. So forget about asking yourself what your passion is. Ask yourself instead, where can I make my biggest contribution? I think that's a great Where question. can I make my biggest contribution? Number 5, I got this one from Derek Sivers. A lot of times we are enticed and seduced by opportunities. We want to say yes to things because maybe they'll be cool, maybe they'll be interesting, maybe it'll work out. But we get a lot of things that cross our desks, that cross our lives, that are kind of middling, maybe, I don't know. You know what? That's not how you should be spending your time. You should be spending your time on things that really give you meaning, that really contribute to the world, that really maximally use your strengths. And so here is a decision-making tool to do that, and I use this one all the time. If someone asks you something, to do something, to participate in something, to join something, and it's not a hell yes, then it's a no. You have 2 choices: hell yes or no. And if it's not a hell yes, it has to be a no, because you know what? Your heart's not fully in it, and when your heart's not fully in it, you're not going to do a good job. So again, when you're faced with a tough decision in any realm of your life, use one of these 5 strategies. It's going to give you confidence, it's going to give you clarity, and it's going to help you move forward.