Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

How To Make Big Decisions

How To Make Big Decisions

If you are wondering how to make big decisions, I have three points of advice.

Because the honest truth is that if you can get a few major life decisions right, your life will go in an entirely different direction.

My simple advice?

Finish high school. Do not commit crime. Don’t have children before marriage. Stay married, if possible. Avoid addiction. Live below your means. Avoid debt. Get a job, and keep a job.

Do these and your life will, over time, look greatly different that people who fail at all of these.

I mean, teenagers are not know for deep critical thinking, but one or two bad decisions can send their lives down a completely different path.

Understand: You can take a huge step towards making better decisions in a systematic way by choosing to make The Seven Decisions.

And pray about it too.

“Most parents try to impress upon their children that where they end up in life has something to do with the decisions they make. Easy examples would be the decisions made about where a person receives an education or how much of an education . . . or what kind of an education . . . or if they get an education at all. “There are decisions about who to marry and when to get married or whether to get married.

-Andy Andrews, The Noticer Returns

Justifying Our Decisions

Justifying Our Decisions

Goodness, we love justifying our decisions, don’t we?

There is nothing wrong with this in and of itself, of course. But we do it in the face of knowing we are wrong.

For this reason we hold on to investments long after we know they are bad, we date someone for a year after we knew the relationship was dead, and we cling to soul-sucking jobs for years after we knew we were in the wrong place.

I think we are afraid of the judgment of others.

The internal and external cost of egg in the face is too great. So we make ourselves believe we did the right thing.

It’s a beautiful story we tell.

A STUDY DONE BY A PAIR OF CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGISTS UNCOVERED something fascinating about people at the racetrack: Just after placing a bet, they are much more confident of their horse’s chances of winning than they are immediately before laying down that bet. Of course, nothing about the horse’s chances actually shifts; it’s the same horse, on the same track, in the same field; but in the minds of those bettors, its prospects improve significantly once that ticket is purchased. Although a bit puzzling at first glance, the reason for the dramatic change has to do with a common weapon of social influence. Like the other weapons of influence, this one lies deep within us, directing our actions with quiet power. It is, quite simply, our nearly obsessive desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done. Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.

-Robert Cialdini, Influence

Sterling Terrell