Master Decisive Moments: Save Your Energy By Making Better Decisions
An idea from “Atomic Habits” to stop wasting your energy
Energy. It’s one of the two most important resources in your life, along with time. We all want to have energy and hate wasting it, especially on things that don’t matter. So, how can we get the best of our energy?
Well, There is an idea in the book “Atomic Habits” of "Decisive Moments", which will give us a new way of managing energy:
“Decisive moments set the options available to your future self. For instance, walking into a restaurant is a decisive moment because it determines what you’ll be eating for lunch. Technically, you are in control of what you order, but in a larger sense, you can only order an item if it is on the menu. If you walk into a steakhouse, you can get a sirloin or a rib eye, but not sushi. Your options are constrained by what’s available. They are shaped by the first choice “— James Clear on Atomic Habits
I like this idea because it shows that you can save much more energy by working smart. It applies the 80/20 Principle and shows that hard work and discipline alone aren’t enough.
But why care about this? You can use your energy in better ways, get more doing less, and focus on other important aspects. People don’t understand this, and use their energy on irrelevant stuff.
A short example:
When you meet someone, first impressions really matter. If they don’t like you. it doesn’t mean they won’t ever like you, but it will take a lot of effort to change their negative perception of you. But if you make a good first impression, you’ve saved a lot of effort and time to achieve the same result.
Those short, decisive moments are so powerful. We need to focus on them
How we can start focusing on decisive moments?
Never open the door
Suppose you’re gonna study and want to focus, but your phone distracts you.
What would be better: Have your phone in the desk, and resist the temptation of using it, or just take it off of the room and never have to resist the temptation?
You have a Coca-Cola in your fridge. Wouldn’t be better to never have it and never resist the temptation of drinking it?
Instead of being disciplined and resisting temptation, just don’t do it.
You don’t need to waste energy making decisions. In those moments, just step away. Don’t even open the door to the possibility.
Building the Roots
If you take care of the roots of a tree, it will grow strong and straight. But if it becomes curved, it’s really hard to straighten it out once the roots are developed — just like with first impressions.
When you’re young, you develop values, beliefs, and habits, and you learn new things. You’re building the roots of your life.
These moments have great power. They can either work in your favor or against you. Be sure they’re working for you.
When I learn a new song on the guitar, I make sure I’m playing the right notes, and correct meter, my fingers are relaxed, and all correctness possible. It’s hard to revert a bad habit. It’s better never to have it.
Take care of the roots of your trees. Use your youth to build the foundation for the rest of your life. Ensure you’re building good habits and setting strong fundamentals.
Choosing a Direction
If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable — Seneca
If a plane’s heading from California to New York but veers off just a bit, it could end up in Washington, D.C., instead.
It’s like a river — change its course just slightly, and it’ll end up miles away from where it was supposed to flow. Or think about shooting a bullet over a long distance; even a tiny shift can make it miss the mark by a lot.
These are the small and short moments that seem irrelevant, but when you project them in time, they make a big difference.
Know exactly where you want to go. It’s not how fast you run, but having a clear direction will determine how far you get
Take care of your Environment
If you’re surrounded by people with bad habits, it will be hard not to follow their steps. Sure, you can still maintain good habits, but it will require extra energy to resist the temptation and not be like them.
You could use that energy more effectively elsewhere.
Your environment can also make you have good habits, and make you work.
Each environment is considered something natural: Maybe in an environment where working hard, having good habits, and some ideas are so natural that they don’t use extra energy to do them: It’s natural
You become what you surround yourself with. It will become natural to have the same thoughts, habits, and ideas.
You can save so much energy if you are in an environment where what you want to do is natural, so you don’t spend extra energy when doing it.
So choose what you want to surround yourself with.
Burn Ships
Eliminate the possibility of retreat. Take actions that will shape your future decisions, no matter what you regret. Remove the option to backslide (similar to never opening the door).
Making decisions, and knowing that there are more possibilities takes a lot of energy. When there is no opportunity, you don't have to spend energy in taking them, looking behind.
If you delete TikTok or Instagram, you don’t have to worry about resisting using it. Just there is no option to do it.
Conclusion
Life is not just about hard work and discipline. First, smart work, know if you are on the right mountain, in the right direction. Then, put the effort into it.
Start finding those moments in your life that will determine most of your results. That’s what will make you different from other people because most of them don’t even realize this. Now you know it and will start using your energy in what really matters
