Clear thinking

What happens in ordinary moments determines your future. We’re taught to focus on the big decisions, rather than the moments where we don’t even realize we’re making a choice. Yet these ordinary moments often matter more to our success than the big decisions. This can be difficult to appreciate. We think that if only we get the big things right, everything will magically fall into place. If we choose to marry the right person, it’ll all be okay. If we choose the right career, we’ll be happy. If we pick the right investment, we’ll be rich. This wisdom is, at best, partially true. You can marry the most amazing person in the world, but if you take them for granted, it will end. You can pick the best career, but if you don’t work your butt off, you won’t get opportunities. You can find the perfect investment, only to look at your savings account and have nothing to invest. Even when we get the big decisions directionally

right, we’re not guaranteed to get the results we want. We don’t think of ordinary moments as decisions. No one taps us on the shoulder as we react to a comment by a coworker to tell us that we’re about to pour either gasoline or water onto this flame. Of course, if we knew we were about to make the situation worse, we wouldn’t. No one tries to win the moment at the expense of the decade, and yet that is often how it goes. The enemies of clear thinking—the more primal parts of our nature—make it hard to see what’s happening and instead just make our lives more challenging. When we react with emotion to a colleague in a meeting, we must make amends. When we make a decision to prove we’re right rather than get the best outcome possible, we only end up with a mess to clean up later. If we start bickering with our partner on Friday, the entire weekend can be lost. No wonder we have less energy, more stress, and feel busy all the time. In most ordinary moments the situation thinks for us. We don’t realize it at the time because these moments seem so insignificant. However, as days turn into weeks and weeks into months, the accumulation of these moments makes accomplishing our goals easier or harder. Each moment puts you in a better or worse position to handle the future. It’s that positioning that eventually makes life easier or harder. When our ego takes over

and we show someone we’re the boss, we make the future harder. When we are passive-aggressive with a colleague at work, our relationship becomes worse. And while these moments don’t seem to matter much at the time, they compound into our current position. And our position determines our future. A good position allows you to think clearly rather than be forced by circumstances into a decision. One reason the best in the world make consistently good decisions is they rarely find themselves forced into a decision by circumstances. You don’t need to be smarter than others to outperform them if you can out-position them. Anyone looks like a genius when they’re in a good position, and even the smartest person looks like an idiot when they’re in a bad one. The greatest aid to judgment is starting from a good position. The company with cash on the balance sheet and low debt has nothing but good options to choose from. When bad times come, and they always do, their options go from good to great. On the other hand, a company with no cash and high debt has nothing but bad options to choose from. Things quickly go from bad to worse. And this example easily extends beyond the boardroom as well.