Quite a few decisions don’t need an elaborate decision-making process.
If someone wants to eat an ice cream, there usually is no point in elaborating for a long time on that decision. In most situations, it will suffice to become aware of one’s desire and be attentive to how eating ice cream is experienced as an answer to that desire.
That little verification will help feel the relationship between the trigger and the chosen response.
If someone wants a new car, one can expect more consequences to consider. The money spent will not be available anymore, the car may have to be adapted to one’s needs, others may have to be involved, etc.
If one wants to step into the decision process for the pure pleasure of dreaming about a new car, then it might be worth it to dive into all the possible factors influencing a decision that have to be considered for one’s satisfaction. But that’s for a purpose to dream.
If the desire appears on the horizon, things are different. It seems that there is a decision to be made. That’s when the same question as with the ide cream reappears. Can you become aware of the desire and be attentive to how buying a car would answer it? Intuitively, most of us will revert to a habit or rule they may have. It will be different for everyone; in my case, it is to check if my car continues to provide me with the sensation that it’ll safely bring me to my destination. If this is the case, the desire will quickly disappear and my decision is clear. I don’t buy a new car.
This first question I’m asking myself is the easiest way I’ve found to speed up decisions. It requires thinking about the decision at hand and the problem it is supposed to solve. The more clarity there is about the problem it needs to solve the faster the decision process.
But once in a while, the decision process as such needs to be reevaluated. Our intuitive reaction is a rule that we’ve set up in the past. As circumstances change, the rules need to be adapted too. Another point of attention is the distinction between the problem and the desire. People can’t know if what they want will also be what they wanted when they have it. Solving a problem is more predictable. It has good enough solutions. Desires tend to pull people towards perfection.
