December 7, 2020 by Dymphna

T-Bomb: How to know what’s right for you

Truth Bomb Tuesday: There’s a simple, 2-part hack for knowing if you’ve made a good decision.

I want to share with you a little decision-making hack my friend uses.

I really like it.

This is a hack for those moments in life where you’re really caught on the fence. When you’re not clear on what the right road to take is. Where there are lots of possibilities, but no strong signals to go one way or the other.

The idea is that your body should give you two strong cues when you’ve made a good decision.

Thais is, you know you’ve made a good decision if,

  1. You feel a strong sense of relief; and
  2. You want to do it right away.

And that’s it.

But I think this is quite powerful.

I think the relief is important, because we want to feel our minds just letting go of everything else, and bringing focus to the new road ahead of us. It should feel like putting down a burden, because that is exactly what we’re doing.

Carrying around the potentiality of many different roads is heavy. It’s a heavy mental burden. When we set them down to focus on a single road, we should feel a sense of relief.

However, this alone can give us a false signal.

Sometimes the relief comes just because you no longer have the anxiety that comes with being stuck in that decision-making place.

You’ve been revving your mental engines, going over the same information again and again. It can be relieving just get away from that.

And sometimes people will make decisions just to get away from the discomfort of this place. And they make bad decisions because when you’re in “any place but here” mode, any road looks good.

They might be stuck trying to choose between deciding if renovations or subdivisions is the strategy they want to start with, and they’re stuck there for ages until one day they just go, “Stuff it. I’m going to invest it all in pink diamonds.”

And they feel a sense of relief because they’re no longer wrestling with the decision.

But they haven’t made a good decision.

And so this is why the second signal is important.

You should feel a sense of relief, but you should also feel a desire to get going on it right away.

The road has become clear to you, and you want to set out immediately.

And I think if you’re stuck with a choice, it’s always worth hunting for that option that gives you these two feelings.

It might not be obvious. You might have to think a bit outside the box. But often that option is there, waiting in the wings. And once you find it, you get a very clear burst of motivation and energy.

So try it on and see if it works for you.

When you’re wrestling with a decision, tune in to your body, and how your body is relating to it.

There is a wisdom there that we’ve barely begun to understand.

DB.