All other factors aside, the most important thing we do is make choices. This makes decision making one of, if not the most, critical skill we need to develop and grow.
So how do we expand and refine our capability and capacity to make decisions?
Decision making relies on the ability to think with a level of clarity and complexity. Clarity is the result of mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. Complexity is the result of learning, or adding more variables to our mental framework.
To get more clarity we practice meditation, learn to regulate our autonomic nervous system (diet, exercise, and controlled breathing), face and process our emotions, and recognize problematic thinking so we can challenge and dispute it.
To increase complexity we rely on our own lived experience and by learning from the experiences of others. Explore the world, read books, watch movies, take classes, make a friend… battle an enemy… fall in love… lose someone you love.
As we go about this process we gather information and refine our influence over our cognitive and emotional systems. But that isn’t enough.
Here is the secret. In order to make a choice we have to act on our decisions. You can’t think yourself into the life you want to live. You have to go and live it.
(Clarity + Complexity)Action = Progress
