How You Can Make Fast Decisions
A short trick anyone can use
Physiologist Ivan Pavlov was researching the salivation of dogs. The dogs in the experiment would salivate upon seeing food. But one fortunate day, Pavlov observed that the dogs were salivating at the sight of Pavlov’s assistant who was bringing food for the dogs.
So that smart guy concluded that the dogs associated his assistant with food because his assistant regularly bought food for the dogs.
With this hypothesis, Pavlov conducted a series of experiments. He started ringing a bell before bringing food to the dogs.
After a few trials of this, the dogs begin to salivate at the sound of the bell even if the food wasn’t presented.
Dogs salivating upon seeing food is a fixed behavior pattern that is inherent. Just like babies suckling their mother’s nipples.
But what Pavlov discovered was a learned behavior pattern coined as Classical Conditioning.
Learned behaviors are habits in general that we form with repetition. And these behaviors save our mental energy.
Our brain consumes 20% of our body’s energy. It’s a considerable amount since our brains are only about 1 percent of our body mass. Doing math is more energy-consuming than running.
Sir Joshua Reynolds — ‘There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.’
Thinking is hard, making decisions is hard, and analyzing is hard. Even when all the information is at our fingertips, we go with our gut. It’s fast and easy but not always accurate.
Well, we can use this fast thinking of ours to go through our everyday life and make decisions with little consequence.
But life gets chaotic when we make every major and minor decision with haste.
So, the next time you’re faced with a decision, ask yourself, “How much impact will this decision make in my life?”
If it’s little to none, then there’s no need to waste any time on it. Just do what feels right.
But if it’s an important decision, you better sit down with a pen and paper and think through everything. A bit of research won’t hurt. And expert opinion will be much preferred.
