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.
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.