Converting the decision into action is the fourth major element in the decision process. While thinking through the boundary conditions is the most difficult step in decision-making, converting the decision into effective action is usually the most time-consuming one. Yet a decision will not become effective unless the action commitments have been built into the decision from the start.

In fact, no decision has been made unless carrying it out in specific steps has become someone’s work assignment and responsibility. Until then, there are only good intentions.

Introduction: The Power of Clear Thinking in Ordinary Moments

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.

The best decision-makers know that the way we define a problem shapes everyone’s perspective about it and determines the solutions. The most critical step in any decision-making process is to get the problem right. This part of the process offers invaluable insight. Since you can’t solve a problem you don’t understand, defining the problem is a chance to take in lots of relevant information.

Many of us have a hard time learning from our decisions. One reason is that our thinking and decision-making process is often invisible to us. We inadvertently conceal from ourselves the steps we took to reach our final decision. Once that decision gets made, we don’t stop to reflect, but just move forward. And when we look back at our decision later, our ego manipulates our memories. We confuse what we know now with what we knew at the time we made the decision. And we see the outcomes and read them back into our intentions: “Oh, I meant to do that.”

If you don’t check your thinking at the time you made the decision— what you knew, what you thought was important, and how you reasoned about it— you’ll never know whether you made a good decision or just got lucky. If you want to learn from decisions, you need to make the invisible thought process as visible and open to scrutiny as possible. The following safeguard can help:

Safeguard: Keep a record of your thoughts at the time you make the decision.

Conclusion

The Value of Clear Thinking

Good judgment is expensive, but poor judgment will cost you a fortune.

The overarching message of this book is that there are invisible instincts that conspire against good judgement. Your defaults encourage you to react without reasoning— to live unconsciously rather than deliberately.

When you revert to defaults, you engage in a game you can't win. When you live a life run on autopilot, you get bad results. You make things worse. You say things that can't be unsaid and do things that can't be undone. You might accomplish your immediate goal, but you fail to realize that you’ve made it harder to achieve your ultimate goals. All of this happens without consciously being aware you are exercising judgment in the first place.