The next time you make an important decision, ask yourself: Are all these constraints valid?
Is this question really a binary yes or no?
Are there other alternatives that you’re not considering?
We tend to accept answers that others provide, but we forget our ability to find new options.
She prescribes one of many available statin drugs.
She says this will generally drop your cholesterol about 30 percent.
There may be side effects.
Two months later you return to your doctor.
Your cholesterol level is now at 195.
Your doctor asks whether you could live with this side effect.
She tells you to continue on the medicine.
What do you say?
He went with the statin.
Zeckhauser responded, “Why don’t you try one of the other statins instead?”
I immediately realized that he was probably right.
My guess is that many patients err by accepting one of two options that a doctor presents to them.
I made the mistake of accepting the choice as my colleague presented it.
I could have and should have asked what all of the options were.
But I didn’t.
I too easily accepted the choice presented to me.
Naturally, no matter how hard you think, you’ll find some situations have no positive outcome.
Creative answers don’t always work out.
But it never hurts to reconsider the constraints and other possibilities before making a final decision.
The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leaders See| Farnam Street
Photo byBrian Moore.
