Everyday decision making gets a lot easier if we let our long-term values guide what road to take. Values are a much more reliable source of information than emotions, thoughts, and experiences. The latter come and go in waves, while values can serve as guides over a longer period of time. Also, values can help us confront situations that might bring up difficult emotions – if doing so serves a valued purpose.
To help ourselves, we can ask questions like:
What kind of person would we like to be in this situation? What would it mean for us in the long run, to decide X or Y? What would we be proud of when looking back at this situation? Following our values can help us:
- Be less prone to avoid difficult emotions
- Reduce the influence of biases
- Be less prone to prefer immediate rewards
- Attach an emotion where there is none
- Prevent analysis paralysis