I love to study both rich and poor people. They always have pearls of wisdom, forged in the fire of experience, that force you to reevaluate your habits, thinking and the decisions you make.
I was recently doing some research on Jon Taffer, the host of the award-winning show Bar Rescue.
One of the things Jon said really rang a bell for me. He said, “never allow anyone to rush you into making a decision. When you feel rushed, this puts you in crisis mode and causes you to make bad decisions.”
This resonated with me because that was one of the seven factors that cause bad decisions, according to my Rich Habits research.
When you make too many bad decisions, that’s a pattern. Patterns indicate habits are at work, behind the scenes, causing you to make bad decisions.
The problem with making habitual bad decisions is that they lead to desperate decisions. Desperate decisions force you to do things you do not want to do – things you intuitively know are not going to be good for the future you.
Like a domino effect, bad decisions force you into a position of weakness, which then forces you into making desperate decisions. Desperate decisions eventually come back to haunt you.
Unlike most ordinary bad decisions, desperate decisions are typically well-thought out bad decisions that you must make – you have little choice. You’re boxed in and you know it.
Desperate decisions always are one-sided – they benefit one party and hurt you.
So, in order to avoid being forced into make desperate decisions, you must first understand why you are regularly making bad decisions.
Bad decisions are caused by 7 factors:
- Impulsive Decisions – Rash, spontaneous, spur of the moment decisions. These are never well-thought out decisions.
- Emotional Decisions – Making decisions when elated, angry or sad.
- Uneducated Decisions – Not doing your homework before making a decision.
- Making Decisions When Tired – Your prefrontal cortex is the CEO of your brain. When you’re tired, your CEO is impaired and unable to make good decisions.
- Making Decisions When Hungry – When you are hungry, this is your body’s way of telling you it needs fuel. When your prefrontal cortex lacks fuel, it will not be functioning at its best.
- Making Decisions While Under Stress – Stress suppresses the prefrontal cortex and allows the emotional center of the brain to take control of the decision-making process.
- Making Decisions While Impaired – When you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, your prefrontal cortex, your CEO, is impaired and not functioning properly.
When you forge the habit of making good decisions, those decisions put you in a position of strength. When you are in a position of strength, you are not forced to do something you do not want to do. You can walk away. You can say no.
Good decisions are decisions that follow three basic rules:
- Doing your homework
- Seeking feedback from experts and
- Deliberation – giving your brain time to consider all of the facts before making an informed decision.
Good decisions usually work out, and when they do, they put you in a position of strength. This enables you to make future positions of strength decisions, decisions that create some long-term benefit, some future good outcome you desire.
It’s not realistic for me to tell you to avoid position of weakness decisions. It is not realistic because position of weakness decisions are often forced upon you by third parties. These third parties might be a bank, a tax agency, an employer, a spouse, a vendor, customer, etc.
It is, however, realistic for me to advise you to follow the above three-step process when it comes to making good decisions.
Good decisions are a firewall against needing to make position of weakness, desperate decisions.
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About Thomas C. Corley
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