Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that regret is inevitable. Big decisions inevitably mean
Speaker 1: giving something else up. But once you accept that, you
Speaker 1: can make decisions with far less angst. Today's tip, like
Speaker 1: a few others this week, comes from Nell Wolfhart, who
Speaker 1: is a decision consultant. She helps people make better and
Speaker 1: swifter decisions. You can check out more about what she
Speaker 1: does at her website Decide and Move forward dot com.
Speaker 1: Nell shared some of her favorite decision making tips with
Speaker 1: me so I could cast them along to the Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast audience. One of my favorite tips is about regret.
Speaker 1: She tells me that the decision making business is really
Speaker 1: the regret minimization business. We are all trying to avoid regret,
Speaker 1: but Nell says this is impossible. Almost every big decision
Speaker 1: comes with regret because you are giving up something you want.
Speaker 1: Does that sound a bit depressing perhaps, but as Nell
Speaker 1: tells me, it is actually liberating. If you accepted there
Speaker 1: was going to be regret either way, which option would
Speaker 1: you choose? I think this is a wonderfully practical way
Speaker 1: to frame decisions. Life is never perfect. When we remove
Speaker 1: one source of stress with a certain decision, we might
Speaker 1: then fixate on others. We lament the others, not giving
Speaker 1: ample credit to the fact that the first is gone.
Speaker 1: This was beautifully illustrated in Jane Austen's classic novel Sense
Speaker 1: and Sensibility, when the cad Willoughby expresses his regret to
Speaker 1: mary Anne that he didn't marry her for love and
Speaker 1: instead married someone else for money. Mary Anne's wise sister
Speaker 1: Eleanor points out that Willoughby can focus on his regret
Speaker 1: about love now because his material needs are amply met.
Speaker 1: Had he married differently, he still would have his extravagant tastes,
Speaker 1: and he'd no doubt start fixating on his regret about
Speaker 1: all the material things he couldn't have, even if he
Speaker 1: did have slightly more romantic feelings for this alternate wife.
Speaker 1: Regret is inevitable, but once you know that, you can
Speaker 1: also turn down some of the angst on even rather
Speaker 1: large decisions. Some longtime listeners have heard the story of
Speaker 1: how I wound up choosing where to go to college
Speaker 1: in twenty four hours. I thought I couldn't afford to
Speaker 1: go to my first two choices where I'd gotten accepted,
Speaker 1: and then a relative offered to help my family out,
Speaker 1: which made them more feasible. I was about twenty four
Speaker 1: hours away from the deadline, so I needed to make
Speaker 1: a decision between those two schools, and so I did.
Speaker 1: I think of that massive decision now sometimes because much
Speaker 1: of my life could be very different if I'd chosen
Speaker 1: the other place. I don't think it would be better,
Speaker 1: because my life is pretty awesome. But whatever I would
Speaker 1: have chosen in those twenty four hours, I would still
Speaker 1: be me, and I'm a pretty positive, happy person. So
Speaker 1: if I had gone to the other school and the
Speaker 1: details of my life were now different, I would no
Speaker 1: doubt think that was pretty awesome. Then too. Life will
Speaker 1: play out as it does, and so it wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been a huge mistake to choose the other school, just
Speaker 1: as alternate universe Laura probably wouldn't be thinking she had
Speaker 1: made a huge mistake either. There were going to be
Speaker 1: upsides and downsides both ways. When you realize this, you
Speaker 1: can just make decisions more practically. Should we buy this house. Well,
Speaker 1: if you like the house and you have the money,
Speaker 1: you will probably be quite happy there. But if you
Speaker 1: don't buy the house. You will no doubt be happy
Speaker 1: in your current home, or whatever different one you wind
Speaker 1: up buying. Either way has its advantages, and either way
Speaker 1: will have its regrets. Should we go to the beach
Speaker 1: or to the mountain for our vacation, you will probably
Speaker 1: make good memories either place. There may be some things
Speaker 1: you miss out on, but unless you go to the
Speaker 1: beach during a hurricane or the mountain during an avalanche,
Speaker 1: neither set of regrets would be particularly more profound than
Speaker 1: the other. It's going to be fine either way, So
Speaker 1: you can choose based on something like whether that resort
Speaker 1: at the beach is running a sail or whether you
Speaker 1: went to the mountains last year, or which just sounds
Speaker 1: like more fun. Regret is inevitable. All decisions involve giving
Speaker 1: something up, but all decisions can lead to some good
Speaker 1: things too. There's really no need to worry too much
Speaker 1: about that. Life will keep playing out as it does
Speaker 1: except that and you will probably be more satisfied in general.
Speaker 1: In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b the number then Breakfast Pod. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast.
Speaker 2: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 2: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I
Speaker 2: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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