Do we make decisions or justify them?

The world is full of stories. We are its chief storytellers.

Our minds decipher the complex goings-on around us by constructing narratives. We make sense of life events, global happenings, even random coincidences by linking themes together and putting in a beginning, middle and end. This makes the world fit into our spongy mess of gray matter easily and gives our lives perspective and position.

When we make a decision, what is useful to identify is whether our rational brain is actually making a decision or justifying a decision made on a feeling/emotion. If you conducted a little experiment on yourself on any given day, I would hazard that you would be surprised as to how many decisions are actually made by your emotion-driven ‘chimp/lizard’ brain (as used by Peters/Godin respectively), with the conscious brain thereafter seeking a narrative to justify the chosen decision. After all, its not good enough anymore to say ‘Well, I just felt like it’ — that simple reason was left in the playground many years ago!

We live in a world where the impact of our decisions are greater than ever before, due to the scrutiny of social media and the opportunity cost of greater choice. Thus storytelling is an art and skill that has risen in value exponentially in recent years. Its position in corporate marketing is without doubt, but also within the brand-building efforts our personal profiles endeavour to portray. Whilst many decisions ultimately are taken by our emotions, habits and gut feelings, our justifications must have a coherence, a beginning, middle and ending. They should add value in enhancing our image via our digital footprint and ensure we remain bastions of logical sound decision making.

The first step here then is understanding when we are using a reason and when we are using a justification. Stories will forever be a part of the human psyche, but we should be self-aware enough to realise when we are rationally approaching a decision, or when our emotions are spinning us a yarn.