3 Components to Make Better Decisions

Preparation, Frameworks, and Mindsets.

Indecisiveness leads to missed opportunities and distracted efforts. For anyone who wants to build their own business or achieve any ambition, learning to make sharp decisions is a requirement.

When I was a kid, the world was largely black and white – things were either right or wrong, good or bad. Decisions were also easy like that. If something made me “happy” it’s a good decision.

As I got older, the world became gray. Things came with caveats and nuances that make them less obvious. Decisions became harder. There were always some cost associated with every decision while the no-brainer’s became few and far between. Trade-offs became a necessity in every move.

This made me more cautious and more hesitant. My overthinking tendency thrived while indecision became the default.

The thing is, as you get older, decisions become more and more important. Not only in the decisions you make, but also in how you make them.

Opportunities reward those who know what they want and are ready to seize it. That’s what luck is. When someone has done their due diligence and prepared for what they want in life, they know to grab it with both hands when the opportunity strikes. Those who stood on the sidelines with hesitation call that luck.

The cost of indecision appears not only in the time and effort spent mulling over decisions, but also in going back and forth after the decision has been made. It leads to half-measures that rarely achieve anything great.

Despite the increasing difficulty of decisions that one have to make in life, there are three components that can help us make better decisions:

• Preparation

• Framework

• Mindset

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Preparation

I know a lot of people are probably put off by Dan Bilzerian’s lifestyle. For those who don’t know, he’s like the modern Hugh Hefner. Regardless of your opinion of him, there’s lessons to learn from everyone. And the lesson I got from reading his book is that the majority of life is about preparation. You take the action to set up your life to increase the chances of luck going your way.

Preparation looks different depending on your goal. An investor might spend years pouring over financial filings waiting for the right moment to make an investment. When the market tanks, they know jump in because they know which companies are safe and which companies to avoid. When the market recovers, some will call the investor lucky without realizing the years of preparation that it took waiting for that luck.

Another example is house hunting. When you’re looking for a house, it pays to know what you want in a house and what the market looks like currently. If not, you risk letting your dream home slip away or leaving money on the table.

If you want to make better decisions, start taking action and prepare yourself to catch opportunities that others miss. Whether that’s upskilling, doing your due diligence, or building something of your own You never know when the opportunity is going to show up. But when it does, you want to be ready to grab it with both hands.

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Framework

Good preparation requires knowing what you really want in life.

I wrote in an earlier letter on the importance of visions, goals, and tenets. Our vision steers our direction while our tenets keep us from going astray.

Vision is the north star that are helpful in decisions related to direction. Visions are generally more abstract and less prescriptive in their implementation. With the right vision, every decision should be filtered through this question: “does this decision move me closer to my vision or not?”

Tenets are the guardrails against emotions. If you’ve ever taken the time to look inward and observe yourself, you might realize how much influence your emotions have on your thoughts, actions, and decisions. Because emotions are fleeting, they are often unreliable when making decisions. Having tenets in place allow us to fall back on our more rational self.

For example, an artist might set up a tenet that prescribes speed over quality for a particular project. Emotions might persuade them to spend more time perfecting the quality while the tenet would keep them on their schedule. Tenets are guardrails that will likely differ between different parts of life.

In summary, visions should guide your path while tenets should help you make objective tradeoffs when you come across a decision.

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Mindsets

Like most things in life, having the right mindset is often half the battle. It’s no different when it comes to making decisions. Having the right preparation and framework should get you in the right mindset already, but explicitly stating some general reminders can amplify their effects.

A few mindsets that I try to remind myself with:

• Most decisions are reversible. The cost of reversing a decision is usually less than the cost of mulling over them or taking half-measures.

• Don’t take half-measures. If you make a decision, jump in with both feet. If you don’t, you will encounter internal conflict that becomes counter productive.

• Most decisions won’t make or break your life even if they feel like that in the moment. Ask yourself whether a decision will affect you in one year, three years, or five years. Then spend your decision making resources accordingly.

• Don’t use other people’s advices and opinions as a crutch. Other people can’t make the decision for you. They are not you and they won’t have to live with the consequences of that decision. Seek advice and opinions, but see treat them as such. Spend some time to really think about what you really want.

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Decisions are hard. And they’ve only gotten harder as I got older. Intentional preparation, frameworks, and the right mindset has made “gray” decisions a little clearer. Its also easier to sit with a decision once I’ve made them. Like all tools, continuous practice and refinement only make them sharper and more useful.

As with any and all advice, use these at your discretion. Take away pieces that make sense and leave the rest. I hope this helps you upgrade your decision making skills.

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