Weekly Question & Framework: September 15, 2023

Hello and welcome to the Curiosity Chronicle Weekly Question and Framework. In three minutes or less, I will give you one question and one framework to leave you thinking going into the weekend. Without further ado, let's dive right in A Question to Own the Struggle what will you do with your 1 second decision? Last weekend I ran my first marathon in 2:57:31. I had never run more than 3 miles before March 2023, but decided I was going to push myself to achieve an ambitious goal of running a sub 3 hour marathon within 6 months of starting to run. During the run, I hit the proverbial wall at mile 21, but a single concept allowed me to burst through it and achieve my the One Second Decision American ultra runner author and motivational speaker David Goggins coined the concept of the one second decision. The idea is simple. When you are doing something hard in life, you are making a second by second decision to keep going. If you lose one of those seconds, you've lost. Each second is an opportunity to keep going or to quit. In that one second, you have to force your reason for continuing to be bigger than the pain that is pushing you to quit. If you can win that one second decision over and over and over again, you'll be unstoppable. So the next time you encounter a great challenge in your life, think about it. What will you do with your one second decision? Will you let the struggle win out over your why for being there? Or will you force your why to be bigger than that struggle? The one second decision is yours. Own it. A Framework on Decision Making Bias Maximizer versus Satisficer Psychologists distinguish between two types of decision makers. One Maximizers, people who want the absolute best option or two Satisficers, people who want the good enough option. The idea is that the way you make decisions is largely determined by where you land on the spectrum between extreme maximizer and extreme satisficer. An extreme maximizer will constantly seek to optimize every aspect of every decision. An extreme satisficer will accept the first credible option as good enough and move on. The majority of us fall somewhere in between these two extreme ends, though with a clear bias toward one end. In a 2006 study, researchers followed 548 college seniors and found that the maximizers got better jobs with higher salaries but were less satisfied with their jobs than the satisficers. This leads to an important point. The constant search for the best possible option can lead to better outcomes but more unhappiness. One of the researchers. Dr. Barry Schwartz notes the maximizer is kicking himself because he can't examine every option and at some point has to just pick something. Maximizers make good decisions and end up feeling bad about them. Satisficers make good decisions and end up feeling good. Both extremes have downsides. The maximizer may leave happiness on the table. The satisficer may leave achievement on the table. In my view, the goal should be to develop an awareness of your natural decision making bias and then work on balancing it out with deliberate effort. If you're naturally a hard maximizer, how can you soften that tendency on certain lower stakes decisions to reduce stress and focus on important things? If you're naturally a hard satisficer, how can you push yourself to take a bit more time with certain high stakes decisions to improve your potential outcomes on important things? Where do you sit on the spectrum? Take an online quiz or use the image in the newsletter to get a frame of reference. That's all for today's piece. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something and I hope you'll share it with others. As always, until next time, stay curious. Friends.