😥 How to Make Hard Decisions

The Sunday Night Review #148

Hey everyone,

Earlier this week, I went to a post-work Christmas drinks thing. I happened to speak to someone who reads this email, and they mentioned that they found one particular post I wrote almost 2 years ago particularly useful.

I want to re-share it, because I still think about this idea almost every single day. It’s saved me so much anxiety, headspace and time over the past couple years. Also, decision making is one of my favourite topics to write about.

I wrote this on the 30th January 2022, just 2 days after I’d quit my consulting job.

51% Decisions

“I want to share one of the things that I relied upon most when making the difficult decision to quit my job last week and change careers. It is called 51% decisions.

I found it in Steven Bartlett's book Happy Sexy Millionaire (weird of Steven to write a book about me am I right?). Steven is a successful entrepreneur and was able to meet Barack Obama during his presidency. He asked Obama how he approaches making difficult decisions.

Obama says that he uses the 51% rule.

The first part of this approach is to accept that you might make the wrong decision. Big decisions are hard by nature and you can never be sure what will happen, so be at peace with the possibility of being wrong. We are only human.

The second part is to try gather all the information and data you have available to you, and try to reach 51% certainty on what decision to make.

Then you can act knowing you made the best choice you could at the time, and be at peace with the outcome.

You will never reach 100% certainty with any decision.

You cannot know what the future holds, and therefore the most you can hope for realistically to go down any path is 51% certainty.

Since I heard this, most of the time when I think about what level of certainty I am at about a difficult decision, I normally realise that I am at around 80-90% certainty, but I still feel stressed because I want that final 10-20%.

Recognising that we will never get that extra 10-20% to take us to 100% certainty is half the battle in making difficult decisions. Anything more than 51% is a win.”

That mindset was what allowed me to get over the incredibly challenging hurdle of quitting my job and pursuing something that excited me more. 2 years later, I can say that I’m extremely grateful for my past self having the guts to do it.

Uncertainty is a part of life.

Do not wait for certainty to come your way, because it never will.

I hold this very close to my heart these days.

Have an epic week!

Tintin 👨‍💻

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