Mental Models and Making Decisions You Don't Regret

Societies with a bias towards success, that are idolizing of successful people usually overlook the decisions that led to failure.

We tend to overlook cases that did not come with a successful outcome. And when we do look at failure, we are often quick to explain why things failed.

“Everything seems stupid when it fails.”

There are no set or fixed good or bad decisions.

The same good decisions become bad decisions if they lead to failure, otherwise, they are lauded.

Too often, we skip the process and jump right to deciding. Maybe that’s due to a lack of time, resources, or knowledge— it doesn’t matter.

Whatever your reason is, it’s never an excuse to skip the decision-making process altogether. Because that’s the only way to become a bad decision maker— regardless of the outcome.

We can never predict the future, but we can make decisions we don’t regret.

If we focus on the thinking process, we will always know we did the right thing, so even a bad outcome will not lead to regret.

• Do not regret making mistakes, just learn the lesson and move on.
• Inaction is more serious than a bad decision.
• Life has suffering build-in at times, and worthwhile accomplishments take time, energy, and sacrifice.

The way you look at how something works in the real world is called a mental model. It’s your thinking framework about something.

But when we make decisions, we often don’t think about our framework and immediately jump to a discussion about potential outcomes.