I am someone who allows my emotions and intuition to dictate my decisions, rather than letting the data decide for me.
This is something that has backfired more times than I can count.
While operating off of intuition can yield great results, it’s not always reliable. Emotions can get in the way of seeing the larger picture. They encourage you to do what you WANT, instead of what you NEED
I believe that it’s healthy to have a certain level of detachment from the thoughts that go on in your head. It’s important to be objective, and not give the thoughts you have too much importance.
If we believe too much of what we tell ourselves, then we create subconscious biases that will influence how we make decisions.
Over time I have come to realize that in life, relationships, or business, decision making is probably the single most important skill to cultivate.
The problem is, we often become emotionally invested in decisions, rather than remaining detached and objective. ‘
The other day I was listening to this podcast, between Tim Ferriss and a legend of a man known as Jerzy Gregorek.
To give you some background information on why this man is the legend of all legends — He’s a world champion powerlifter who hasn’t had his records broken in 30 years, and at nearly 80 years old this man can squat more weight than you probably can, with perfect form, while on a balance ball. BOSS.
Aside from his accomplishments as a powerlifter, what is even more impressive is the way that this man thinks.
“Easy decisions, hard life — Hard decisions, easy life” — Jerzey
This man believes in making tough decisions all the time. The more thought you give to decisions, and the more you truly weigh every side of the coin, the better your life will be.
You see, most of us rush through decisions. We don’t give them sufficient time or thought. OR we allow emotions and intuition to guide our decisions…OR we don’t follow our intuition enough.
It’s a tricky balance for all of these factors. So how does he do it?
He has developed a framework that he calls “Master Vs. Fatalist”.
The master is the disciplined version of ourselves. The one who eats perfectly healthy, maintains a perfect exercise routine, doesn’t drink or smoke, and does all of the activities we know we should do on a daily basis.
The fatalist on the other hand, is the hedonist. The one who drinks, smokes, parties, fucks, and lives life to the fullest.
In life, we have a constant dialogue between these two parts of ourselves. Some days the master wins, some days the fatalist wins.
He recognizes the balance between these two sides of himself. BUT, rather than letting these two minds argue with each other, he uses them for his advantage.
When making a decision, Jerzey will ask himself objectively, “What would this decision look like from 100% master and 0% fatalist?” “What about 100% fatalist and 0% master?”
Then he will take it a step further. “What would this decision look like with a 70/30 balance? What would this decision look like with a 50/50 balance?”…and so on.
You see, he will map out his decisions from MULTIPLE ANGLES. Instead of involving himself in the decision, he creates personas of himself, and tries to think how they would act in these situations.
By doing this, he removes himself from the decision making process. He thinks through the decision from every angle possible, weighing different perspectives along the way.
Then, once he has mapped out all of these different perspectives, the right decision is usually a clear choice. He has objectively looked at every angle, and by going through this thought process is able to come up with the right solution.
The solution rises to the surface naturally.
I love this as a decision making framework. You teach yourself how to become objective. How to look at, and evaluate, all of the different perspectives that you can come up with.
You teach yourself to detach yourself emotionally from the decisions that you make.
Personally, this framework has worked wonders for me. It has helped me to combat my emotional, intuition driven, decision making mindset, and instead look at everything objectively.
It’s become a way to get out of my own head. It’s become a way to give myself advice. To have friends to give me their opinion when I need to think something through.
The next time you need to make a tough decision, try this framework for yourself. Break down your own balance between Master and Fatalist to come up with a balanced and objective decision 😃
Also published on Medium.
