To decide for a goal

As you might have found out yourself, it's easy to come up with a lot of possibilities for potential goals - and it's very hard to decide for one of them. Yet it's crucial to commit yourself to one goal that you're willing to pursuit as long as it takes to get there. That's why in this post I'd like to explore the mechanisms of decision making.

So, how do we make decisions and who actually is making them? Well, we know that our perception can be fooled easily.

For example in the picture on the left, the two fields A and B have the exact same color - whether you believe it or not. We are generally aware that our perception can be deceived. The thing is that we're not capable of doing something against it - even when we know that the two fields have the same color, we still cannot see it. To really see how limited we are watch this Ted Talk by Beau Lotto, it's amazing!

So perception is the first flaw on the way to decide for a goal. But there's a second flaw which is even bigger: We're fooled as well when it comes to decisons. Even though we think that we're deciding on our own, that's not true at all! Our cognitive abilities are as insufficient as our perception. Dan Ariely asks in this Ted Talk: are we in control of our own decisions? And his answer is 'no'! We're very easily manipulate and are unable to realize it. In a supermarket for example, all items those that are on sale are not helping us to save money at all even though the advertising is implying a different truth. No it's the opposite, they tempt us into spending more than we intended to. This is, with an item on sale we are given a third option. The first and second options were to buy or not to buy. The third option that comes with the sale is to buy for a reduced price. Since two of the options contain buying, it becomes more favorable to buy then not to buy.

Anyways it's important to be aware that our decisions are manipulated whether we notice it or not. The conclusion is to not overvalue any decision. It is not that important if you do this or that, it's far more important to decide and stick with the decision. Research has shown that people who were given a choice tend to be unhappier in the long run than people without choice! If you don't believe this, watch Dan Gilberts Ted Talk asking why we're happy. Or the Ted Talk of Nancy Etcoff about the surprising science of happiness.

To summarize: more important than trying very hard to make the right decision is that you make a decision and stick to it. Energy should be used for sticking to the goal not for finding one!