We recently discussed “the trichotomy of control.” This is the idea that there are things over which we have complete control, things over which we have no control at all, andthings over which we have some but not complete control.
Today, I want to elaborate on that even more by inviting you to reflect on something that we have complete control over:
Our control over the decision we choose to make.
In their book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, Chip and Dan Heath explain that there are four “villains” of decision making.
One such villain, short term emotion, occurs when fleeting emotions tempt us to make decisions that are bad in the long term, which, given our current situation, might mean selling stocks, bulk-buying, or ignoring advice to stay home.
To downplay short-term emotion in favor of long-term values, we need to think about a decision on three different time frames. And the best way to do that, according to the authors, is by completing a “10/10/10 analysis.”
This involves writing down a big decision you’re thinking of and then asking yourself:
- How will I feel about it 10 minutes from now?
- What about 10 months from now?
- How about 10 years from now?
It’s important to mention that doing a 10/10/10 analysis isn’t about ignoring our short term emotions. They’re sometimes telling us something useful about our situation, after all.
Nor is it about presupposing that the long-term perspective is the right one. Foresight, after all, is sometimes just as near-sighted as hindsight.
Rather, it’s about ensuring that short-term emotion isn’t the only lens through which you view big decisions. And in times like these, viewing a decision through multiple frames is the best way to safeguard our future selves.
Leave a Reply