Freedom From Our Self-Created Prisons of Indecision and Scarcity
How I Make Decisions To Better Get What I Need
I don't know about you but I used to spend hours/days/weeks of time tirelessly mulling over a decision. I would let it consume me, all to realize much later that I had yet to make a decision. Then, when I finally did make one; I would often find myself regretting the choice and would then have to spend more time going back and fixing it (if I were even able).
This just wasn't working for me.
I knew I had to come up with a better way.
Through years of development, I've learned much about how we consciously and unconsciously make decisions and the impact decisions have on our lives (obvious hint: it's everything we have control over). With studies and critiques discussing the need to limit our decisions and how too many choices can make us unhappy. I believe this problem is due to decision fatigue attributed to burnout from mulling over decisions. We only have so much energy in a day, and decisions take up a lot of energy!
Why do we burn out so easily?
Well, there's a simple answer.
We never learnt 'how' to make decisions.
Mind blowing to think about, eh?
I know it was for me when I realized this! When in our culture are we taught a reliable process for decision making? In my culture and the ones I know of, this rarely happens...
This is why I'm going to share with you a decision making framework that revolutionized the way I make decisions!
Holistic Life Design: A Framework For Decision Making to Achieve Freedom.
This amalgamation of processes helped me to fundamentally change my life. It assisted me in discovering novel and effective methods for meeting my needs, thus freeing up more of my time to play, love and create. This allowed me to spend more time designing a better world and a better me, which in turn helped me to make better decisions, which in turn freed up more of my time (a beneficial feedback loop).
So, these tools and mind hacks are not mine, merely one's that I have learned about and attempted to apply and adapt to my life. It has been incredibly helpful, even though I don't believe I have even left basecamp!
Invest Some Time
I promise you will see exponential returns on your time investment! This is more assured than cryptocurrency :)
When I first did this (when it had the most impact) was during a 2 week fast. I focused on this whenever I felt inspired during those weeks. However, I have seen people gain great benefit in an afternoon/evening dedicated to the process!
Step 1: Take Inventory
The first thing we're going to have to do is account for everything that we presently have. When I first did this I was completely blown away by the number of resources I had available to me that I didn't consider. This process helps us to more accurately know what it is we have in our lives; to best be able to leverage and manage these resources to give us a better life with more thorough and easier decisions!
10 Forms of Currency and Capital
| Capital | Currency | Utility |
|---|---|---|
| Experiential | Action | Embodied Experience, Wisdom, etc |
| Intellectual | Knowledge | Ideas, Problem Solving, Skills, etc |
| Spiritual | Intention, Faith, Focus, Karma, etc | Grounding, Balance, Attitude, Passion, etc |
| Social | Influence | Connections, Friends, Relationships, Media Presence, etc |
| Material | Physical Resources | Tools, Equipment, etc |
| Financial | Mediums of Exchange | Money, Bitcoin, Stock, etc |
| Living | Living Resources | Trees, Plants, Water, Animals, etc |
| Cultural | Song, Story, Ritual, Ceremony, etc | Community |
| Health | Physiology | Motivation, Endurance, Attention, Beauty, Strenght, etc |
| Time | Time | Our Life! |
Examples:
- A pastor/yogi/life-coach/etc transforms 'spiritual capital' into 'financial capital'.
- A teacher can exchange intellectual and experiential capital for financial capital.
- We can sell apples (living capital) for money.
- A writer can create a beautiful story (cultural capital) and leverage his followers (social capital) to make cryptocurrency on Steem.
However, we can also transfer 1 directly to another:
- Work/skill trade: Exchanging action (experiential capital) and time for food (living capital) and knowledge (intellectual capital).
- Asking a friend (social capital) to lend you a tool (material capital).
- Giving some apples (living capital) to a neighbor to build a better relationship (social capital).
- Taking our time to do physically demanding (building health capital) gardening tasks to grow food (living capital)!
When one action can build multiple forms of capital, I call that stacking functions'.
Write it Down
This is the first step to making better decisions in life. When I took note of what I had available to me it was a staggeringly liberating process as I became aware of just how much I had! For the first time knowing just how wealthy I truly was. Sometimes we get caught up in just a few of these forms and we forget to see the others!
So, dig deep and write down any forms of capital you may have, friendships and connections, skills and knowledge; anything you believe to have value to you. It doesn't have to be beautiful, this isn't a resume. This is for you, so simply writing it down is good enough! This process helps us to see and better understand a more whole (holistic) picture and see more diversity in the options we have available. This to me is freedom, as I have been able to meet my needs more effectively by better utilizing the capital I have. :)
That is all for step 1
This process takes a time investment to properly do and is an extremely powerful step all on its own!
I'll be releasing step 2 tomorrow. This should be enough time to complete the first step. If you would like me to tag you in the next release, just let me know in the comments!
These steps are typically found in life-building/design courses, (some courses cost thousands of dollars and weeks of dedicated effort). The benefits you gain following these steps is exponentially proportional to the capital (time) you invest! Fortunately, this knowledge doesn't cost anything else!
When you complete this step feel free to share in the comments your insights and ask any questions you may have!
Rieki
Dedicated to Word-Smithing High-Quality, Detailed, Original Content
