A simple framework for making decisions easier

Last weekend I was discussing life goals with my wife, and she asked me “What would your 60 year old self tell your current self to do?”

It was a great question. Decisions are our highest leverage activity. But we too often rely on our current emotional state when making them. This question pushed me out that, and into taking a longer term view. Almost immediately, I knew the answer was “take more risks, try more stuff”.

This connected in my mind with a similar mental tool provided by Victor Frankl in his legendary memoir:

I live as if I were living already for the second time and as if I had acted the first time as wrongly as I am about to act now.

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Pick something your worried about, or a decision you need to make, and apply these two models. Let me know if they worked, and which one you preferred.

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