A Black T-Shirt
Today, you and I will make thousands of decisions.
I read an article that intrigued me, challenged me, on my decision-making.
Many of the decisions made in a day are default decisions. I default to, going to work, which vehicle I will drive, even just getting dressed. Some of these defaults have consequences one way or another (showing up to work naked will most likely result in termination, though I have not personally tested this). But these are still decisions to be made.
Consider the consequences of your current defaults; what would happen if I chose to do something different than what I have trained as my defaul? Maybe I just choose not to show up to work (we all know how that would go). Or I take my wife’s van instead of my car (not sure who would ask more questions: my wife or my toddlers).
Every decision you make has an impact on your day, and on those around you. So naturally you build default choices in order to save energy for yourself and have minimal impact on those around you. These defaults work to smooth life out; if we had to consciously choose every minute detail, life would be more exhausting than it already is. As a married couple, the side of bed I sleep on was chosen long ago when my wife made clear she would never sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door; we have been married almost 10 years now. That is one less decision I have had to make in almost a decade.
As I have stepped back and evaluated my own decision-making in the last few years in order to grow as a leader, I have realized a few key truths about life.
Decision fatigue is a real thing. Making decisions requires energy, so eliminating some basic decisions is a psychological mechanism to make your life easier. Intentionally build defaults to take something off your plate. High-capacity leaders would do well to employ this strategy. This is one reason some highly successful individuals wear the same clothes every day, an idea that has led me to wear a black t-shirt most days.
Making quick decisions is a path to effectiveness. You don’t always have to make the right decision, but making a decision is better than no decision. In the time you have spent wondering and contemplating and worrying your decision, another person could have made the wrong decision and then corrected it. There are lessons to be learned from wrong decisions, but those lessons will not appear in the absence of a decision being made.
Default decisions are not always healthy decisions. A list comes to mind: scrolling. overeating. binge watching netflix. doom scrolling. boredom scrolling. porn. oversleeping. staying up too late. emotionally retreating. Doing something just because others are. And so on… Default decisions happen because you have built a life that makes it easy for these things to happen, but that small list is just a scratch into the unhealthy decisions that are made simply because it has always been done. Evaluate your own default decisions, and change the ones that are detrimental.
By the time you read this, you will have made hundreds, if not thousands of decisions. Some active and others by default. Your ability to make good and healthy decisions is a direct correlation to your effectiveness in various areas of life and a direct impact on your holistic personal wellbeing.
I am simply encouraging you to make good decisions.
That’s what I am working on.