- Jared Seidel
- Posts
- How to Make Great Decisions
How to Make Great Decisions
Last week I was taking a break in between work meetings. I pulled out my phone and hunched over it for my 5 minute break.
I was in between balancing hosting my next cold plunge party, getting a pitch deck ready for work, and wrapping up some personal finances.
As I was trying to figure the personal finances for the month and I came across one of my old spreadsheets. It was the math I did for how much stock I needed to liquidate in order to maintain my current lifestyle and move to San Francisco before I needed to make big changes.
That’s when it hit me.
It was right around this time last year I decided to move to San Francisco. I went back and dug through a text conversation I had with a friend right when I knew.
Here’s that text
Almost 1 year exactly…
One simple call just tipped me over the edge. But once that conversation happened, I knew that was the kind of person I wanted to be around.
I leaned back in my chair and let it sink in. I needed to take a moment to pause and appreciate how far I have come. Something I don’t normally do. I have an insatiable appetite for “more” and “better” so it takes an active effort to actually appreciate a decision like that.
It was 109 days from when that text was sent to when I showed up at my new apartment on Christmas eve.
109 days may seem like a lot but let me tell you it came at me fast.
This is my packed trunk. I only moved with what I could fit in my car for two trips. Shout out to my friend Colton who drove half of my belongings up to SLO so I didn’t have to drive all the way back down to San Diego. Twice.
How Evaluate a Decision
When you make a decision as big as this. How do you know if it’s a big deal, do you recall how it felt at the time, or when you know if it the outcome was worth it? Will you even be able to learn from this?
The decision to move sent me digging for something that could help me answer those questions. I stumbled across a list of questions Shaan Puri asked himself when going back and learning from big decisions.
He even built it out and turned into a database of big decisions he made called the “The Decision Register.”
Next time you make a big decision ask yourself the following questions:
Shaan Puri’s list of questions for big decisions
I used it for my move to San Francisco and now for all the big decisions I make.
After filling each decision out I make sure to revisit it 1 year later. Otherwise I am going to lie to myself that it was a good idea.
I’ll be revisiting my “SF relocation” one in 3 months.
Next time you’re making what feels like a big decision write this out and answer these questions.
That way you can review and learn from it once you have results.
Reply and let me know what big decisions you have coming up that you can use this for?
You’re Awesome,
Jared
What did you think of this email?You can add more once you pick a response 👇🏻 |
Gentlemen’s Agreement 🤝🏻
I need a favor from you. Every week I spend several hours crafting this email to give you entirely for free. Banger, after banger. Except it’s not actually free.
I love doing this, but I also love seeing this grow (You might say I’m flawed. But you’re not my therapist). To keep this free it would mean the world to me, and my ego, if you shared this with just 1 person who you think would also like this.
They can subscribe using this link here 🙌🏻
Reply