PERSPECTIVE: 3 Ways to Dramatically Improve Your Decision-Making

When was the last time you made a truly informed decision? In today's high-pressure, low-thinking environment, most people consume endless streams of information yet can't separate signal from noise. The result? Strong opinions backed up by weak arguments.

This is a dangerous combination for leaders who need clarity to make critical decisions.

To maintain perspective when it matters most, you must break free from the noise machine. Here's how.

Disengage Your Auto-Pilot

In other words, don't assume someone else has done the thinking for you. When you encounter new information, ask yourself: Is this an ideological opinion or an honest attempt to report facts?

While all information carries some bias, distinguishing between fact-based reporting and narrative-driven opinion should be straightforward. But...It's not. Most of the time, what we consume lacks credible sources—or omits them entirely. Even when an opinion aligns with your existing views, remember it's still just an opinion.

To regain control of your information diet:

• Question what's missing from the bigger picture

• Look for data that's evolving in real time

• Examine how the same issue is covered in different regions or countries

When you outsource your thinking, you outsource your decisions. Just as an athlete wouldn't fuel their body with junk before competition, you can't fill your mind with low-quality information and expect high-quality results.

Reengage Your Curiosity

The enemy of curiosity isn't ignorance—it's arrogance. If you're not allowing your perspective to evolve as circumstances change and new information emerges, you're not allowing yourself to grow.

Staying curious means remaining as neutral as possible in the narrative wars. It means being open to information that challenges your thinking and gives you perspectives others won't consider.

Political polarization isn't about policy disagreements—those require honest debate between parties acting in good faith. Instead, we see entrenchment, where people "dig in" despite contradictory evidence.

Your ideas serve a purpose—until they don't. Don't become so committed to them that you allow them to persist even when they no longer serve your goals.

Trust Your Gut

While overcommitting to your ideas is dangerous, under-committing to your deeper sense of knowing is equally problematic. If you've disengaged your auto-pilot and reengaged your curiosity, trusting your gut becomes much easier.

You have a unique perspective for a reason—use it. This doesn't mean blindly trusting your current opinion on everything, but it does mean acknowledging your life experience and knowledge. Your instincts exist to alert you when something feels off.

A healthy perspective is rooted in humility—understanding that you don't have all the answers and never will. This realization isn't limiting; it's liberating. It gives you the opportunity to discover the world in new ways and make greater contributions to those around you.

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TAKE Action 

Ask yourself:

• Am I actively questioning the information I consume or assuming it's been vetted?

• Have I remained open to new perspectives that might challenge my thinking?

• Am I balancing critical thinking with trust in my well-informed instincts?

Stop gorging on junk information and start thinking critically again. Disengage auto-pilot, reengage curiosity, and trust your gut—but only after you've done the work to inform it properly.

The quality of your decisions depends on it.

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