Experts in almost any field take context into account habitually. The rest of us have to remind ourselves to do it. To practice situation awareness is to appreciate where you are right now, so you can adopt the right mindset for the context and the stakes. Perhaps you can think of a time at work when you tormented yourself with anxiety about whether you would succeed in a role or a project. I know I can. It happened many times while I was writing this book! Situation awareness allows you to take stock of where you are and proceed appropriately, sometimes to reduce unhelpful anxiety and other times to lower risk. It’s about developing the habit to pause and check—both for in-the-moment reactions and when planning some project or event—by asking yourself two essential questions: Where am I on the context spectrum? And what’s at stake?

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 gasoline or water onto this flame.

What a lot of people miss is that ordinary moments determine your position, and your position determines your options. Clear thinking is the key to proper positioning, which is what allows you to master your circumstances rather than be mastered by them.

It doesn’t matter what position you find yourself in right now. What matters is whether you improve your position today.

Every ordinary moment is an opportunity to make the future easier or harder. It all depends on whether you’re thinking clearly.

You can’t control everything, but you can control your response, which makes circumstances better or worse. Each response has an impact on the future, taking you either a step closer to or a step further from the outcomes you want and the person you want to be.

One effective question to ask yourself before you act is, “Will this action make the future easier or harder?” This surprisingly simply question helps change your perspective on the situation and avoid making things worse.

It’s easy to underestimate the role ease plays in decision-making. Since behaviour follows the path of least resistance, a surprisingly successful approach is to add friction where you find yourself doing things you don’t want to do.