Snap Choices

Oftentimes when we make certain choices we are given the luxury of time to think things through, evaluate our options, then choose to take a specific action towards a situation. However, when we are faced with situations when it require us to make a snap choice, do we always make it a wise one? In that split seconds, when we are forced to make a choice about our actions, what happens?

There are certain categories of people who encounter such situations more regularly than others. For instance, a policeman needing to make a choice whether to approach a supposedly suspect, a trader in the stock market needing to make a choice to buy or to sell and at what price, a nurse or doctor in an ER needing to make a choice whether to send the patient home or to give him the necessary medication.

Research has shown that when some of these individuals make such snap choices, they are correct on average. What that means is that given expert knowledge or intimate understanding of the situation at hand can allow the individual to make a correct choice. Are there times when snap choices when made have gone astray? The answer is of course, yes.

When needing to make snap choices, especially when in situations that are really high pressured or when the person is highly strung, what happens to that individual is that their ability to make a correct snap choice breaks down. They no longer take into consideration the peripheral information available and hence make a wrong choice.

Hence, the next question is, can such wrong choices be avoided? The answer is of course, yes, again. The ability to make a better choice can be trained, conditioned in the mind of the individual such that when a similar situation arise, it allows the individuals to draw from their previous encounters and choose accordingly.

So, the challenge for today is: Think about your snap choices!

Step 1: Pick one snap choice that you've made previously that you wish you didn't.

Step 2: Identify what was the trigger that cause you to make that snap choice.

Step 3: How will you want your choice of action to be instead?

Step 4: Visual yourself in that situation again first making that unwise choice, then create another visual of yourself in that similar situation and making the better choice. Bring the first picture in full view in front of you and have the second picture shrunk to a thumbnail size and place it at the lower left-hand corner of the first picture. Now, in a second, enlarge the second picture so big that it covers the first picture entirely. Do this for at least 6 times. Now, see what happens when you visualise yourself in a similar situation again. Do you see the first or second picture?

Love and respect,
Melvyn Tan