Decision Making for (Obsessive) Dummies

If decision making is art, I am like the tone-deaf Louvre visitor gawking at Mona Lisa with a bemused expression. Really, THIS painting?

If decision making is sport, I am like the spectator who got a free pass to watch golf and is left wondering – “How is this called a sport? Wait a minute, people get paid millions for THIS!?”

Let’s just say decision making doesn’t come naturally to me. But then, how am I a fully functioning adult, you ask? Depends on how much time we have, but let me give you an abridged version.

Whenever big decisions in life are approaching, I dither, I dawdle, I teeter, I totter, I wobble, I waddle until….. life makes the decision for me.

Mind you, I do play my part dutifully in this charade. I sit down calmly, obsess over relevant minutiae, prepare extensive pros and cons lists, sleep over it for 2-3 business days (read: years) and then wait for life to make the decision.

Such a promising start to this edition, eh?

Considering my natural adroitness at this skill, I have resorted to conventional wisdom for major decisions. And one of the most significant pearls of wisdom to have come from societal pop culture on decision making is to keep on expanding the set of choices available to you.

‘Isme aage bahot scope hai’ – the quintessential phrase is the Indian life advice equivalent of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later.’ And it worked beautifully in an era where we were consciously trying to expand our surface area of choices. The aim was to inflate a balloon so big that it could contain enough air to sustain the weight of our infinite dreams. However, conversing fluently in one language is significantly more meaningful than dreaming in ten and herein lies the catch.

Massive optionality has an evil twin as part of the package – cognitive overload. And if you are like a manic deer in front of rapidly approaching headlights while taking big life decisions, optionality means only one thing – indecision.

When I reflect back on my life, every time I have expanded the surface area of choices, I have been left bewildered. But there have been few notable instances when I have eliminated options to the maximum possible extent, and that has left me with serene clarity of thought and execution. Sharing a couple of examples of both scenarios below:

Times I have consciously expanded the choices

Picking Engineering for Undergrad

Everybody I talked to before selecting a specialization post 10th had the same advice – Engineering opens up all options. What’s interesting is nobody informed me what those options were, and nor did I bother to check. For a person operating from a scarcity mindset, options are the holy grail. However, it was pretty evident to me, as it was to most of our batch, that too pretty quickly, that we had no inclination whatsoever towards it.

Joining Consulting post MBA

Everyone and their dog want to pursue two career options after completing an MBA – Consulting and IB. Reason? They keep your options open as you get an opportunity to work across different sectors.

Times I have consciously limited the choices

MBA Preparation

During the MBA preparation time, I decided to appear exclusively for CAT. This meant forgoing even a shot at some brilliant institutes like XLRI, which have separate entrance exams. Even while filling the CAT application form, I only selected IIMs ABCL in the form. This meant that I would not even be eligible for interview calls from any other colleges, even if I got the required percentile.

By all rational measures, this was an extremely foolish decision. All my friends asked me to reconsider it. But I knew the more options I had, the more my mind would refuse to prepare accordingly. Ofcourse, this could have gone either way and I was fortunate enough that it ended well. However, during my prep time, I was completely at peace as there was only one path to a potentially successful outcome – securing a target percentile.

PS: I had prepared myself for the more likely possibility of not securing an admission anywhere and was at peace with that outcome, had it materialized. And before anyone asks, my parents had zero idea about this – they still don’t know :D

Career Break #1

When I decided to leave Lido Learning for the sake of my sanity, it was during the peak of hiring winter – Covid Phase 1. I had the option of switching to another edtech company – investors were drooling all over edtech at the time, it wouldn’t have been difficult. But, my conviction on the startups operating within the sector had dwindled, so I removed edtech as an option for my next role. I went on a career break instead knowing fully well that the market was as bad as it could be for other sectors and/or roles.

So, if you suffer from a similar syndrome of analysis paralysis, maybe next time when faced with a major decision, try this approach:

• Systematically remove options which you know are solely a result of external expectations (and are not aligned with your values).
• Conduct a pre-mortem i.e. prepare your mind for the worst possible outcome and visualize the impact on yourself. If you aren’t ready for it yet, go back to Step 1 and recalibrate.
• Give it your best shot with hopefully a clear state of mind.

Do let me know if you have tried this approach in the past or end up trying it in future. Would love to know how it panned out for you.

Would also love to hear other specialized tactics you folks have discovered over the course of your battles against indecision.

Till next time! 👋

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PPS: Have a reflective day :)