Read time: 4min
Welcome to my weekly newsletter, where I share with you what I deem to be insightful & impactful ideas I am learning along the way. There may be something in here that helps you.
What’s in store:
Your brain processes 11 million bits of information every second.
My father whispered, “Son, you only need to do two things….”
Make better decisions in 6 easy steps
Quote – If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming…
The cold water was lapping over my shoulders; the shout came from the boat – Trev, YOU READY…
The human brain can process 11 million bits of information every second. Our conscious mind can handle 50 bits of information every second.
FIFTY!
That makes sense now why I made so many errors in such a short space of time.
The decision was made – right or wrong – I nodded, and the boat accelerated…
I was in all sorts of trouble.
I grew up water skiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding… if it was behind a boat, I was trying it. Three years old was my first crack – CRACKED SKULL! Just kidding, but if you have ever face-planted on water skis or a wakeboard, you know then the trauma I experienced as a three-year-old. Which my wife says I am still dealing with to this day!
My father held me upright in the water – his friend Dave was driving the boat – skis on my feet – made for youths (surely I wasn’t a youth yet?). They were tied with a small rope at the front and back. The ski rope was then attached to the skis themselves.
Dad whispered, “son, you only need to do two things – hold on for dear life and don’t drown otherwise your mother will be upset.” Cool story, dad! How was this not a disaster waiting to happen? My brain was only processing 1 out of those 50 pieces of information – Bru, you D.E.A.D.
I tell you this story because I want you to understand that I was not a complete novice lying in the water with a foil ski under my feet three decades later.
My decision while lying neck deep in the water on this day was not naive or inexperienced. It was years of perfecting a skill that would serve me well.
Little did I know…I was wrong.
What I have learned since then about making better and of course
quick decisions – 6 steps you can use:
Set clear goals – know your objectives so that when the moment comes, you have reasoned out the best possible options beforehand. You won’t always know at the moment, but that’s where the other steps come in.
Set time limitations – Setting time limitations on decisions you know you need to make will help you learn how to make quicker and better decisions down the line.
Observation – You need to be curious and observant both personally and professionally. Being conscious and aware of your surroundings every day will help you gauge insight into your surroundings so that when the time comes, because you have been paying attention, you can make better conscious decisions.
Identify your options (pros and cons) – List your priorities. Weigh up the alternatives in order of value. You will see what’s most important to reach your goal as you go through your list.
Failures are lessons – How often we turn away from making decisions because of the risk of failure. Failure is a critical process. Failure is not harmful if you see it as a lesson. These lessons teach us, make us learn, and make us grow. No one makes perfect decisions all the time, and that’s okay. The key is that you are taking action (courage = action).
Review and renew – We need to review & renew our decisions. Have we considered the results of our decisions and evaluated whether it has resolved the need you identified in step 1?
The torque of this 450-horsepower inboard engine popped me out of the water like a ready-to-squeeze pimple. Instantly, I was riding what seemed to be that deranged seal on camps bay beach. The thrashing beneath my feet was something new to me. I was not aware of nor prepared for this exhilarating ride.
It was my first ever foil experience. Foils are not like surfboards or wakeboards. They are their own beasts. It is a similar size to a wakeboard but shaped more like a surfboard. Underneath the board is a long post; at the end of the post is this rather sizeable boomerang-shaped fin, and then a little way behind that is a small deadly, scalpel-sharp fin. Ready to cut you in pieces if you do not give it the respect it deserves.
As I tried to control this rabid seal foil, the fin at the end of the long post decided it was time to raise me 1 meter above the water, then thrash me back down again. This continued for 20m before it finally had enough of mocking me, and it threw me off. The rabid seal foil is a unique beast, and it clearly hadn’t had enough of torturing me, so it decided a little more humiliation was in order. It was time to whip out its little scalpel fin and slice me just below my manhood.
Now, this all happened very quickly, of course. I hit the water, and in the same motion of coming up for air, I lifted my leg as high as I could out of the water to see how bad the cut was. I imagined the worst. I expected the worst. – floating in a pool of my blood.
To my surprise, it was not nearly as bad as it felt.
Foiling – not the video where I cut myself.
Now there was a lot of split-second decision-making happening. From the moment I decided to try the foil for the first time, to the positioning of my feet on the board, to how I lay in the water waiting to start, to my weight distribution once I was up, to how I held the rope… the list goes on and on.
Okay…so how do you mitigate the risk and make better decisions? You go back and read the six steps, Marelize!
You might say, “Don’t try the foil at all, Trev,” but what fun is that?
Try the foil but do your homework; watch YouTube videos, find out what the required speed the boat should go for beginners, wear a wetsuit to help protect you from the sharp fins, and have an experienced guy on the boat to teach you tips and tricks.
Yes, these are all excellent reasons to mitigate the risk.
The question is then raised; where is the fun in learning? Where is the fun in failing? Where is the fun if you don’t pick yourself up and try again? What can you learn?
This is where we need to differentiate between what is good decision-making practice (the six steps) and what is downright tomfoolery.
Suppose you look back on your life. Where can you say you have made good decisions, and where have you let yourself down because of bad decision-making or, let’s call it, the lack of good decision-making practice?
Like everything in life – we need to put in the work; this will help us become better decision-makers. Time must be spent understanding and mastering the art of effective and quick decision-making. Otherwise, how do you know? How do you know you are making the best decision at that moment? Your unconscious mind’s default setting must be the best possible decision you can make AT THAT MOMENT.
If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another… There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling, and action that you experience.” ― Deepak Chopra
I would love to hear from you. Please do email me with any questions or topics you would like to discuss.
In your day, be courageous, confident, and curious.
Your Friend
Trev.
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