Life is full of choices.  Some are relatively easy, like what to wear to work every day.  Others are more challenging and thought-provoking, like determining your 5-year career plan.  What most people lack is a process to make these decisions in a clear and confident fashion.  This means removing your ego, emotions and any other distractions from your daily decision-making process.

Recently, I was given a tip on this topic that’s really helped me out.  It came from a high-performance psychologist who has tested this among the likes of the US military, professional athletes, and major corporations.  Hopefully, it can help you to choose the right outfit tomorrow and, more importantly, with the decisions that truly define your future.

Here’s The Trick

Take a decision you’re struggling with and look at it in three ways:

1. Picture the absolute worst case scenario of what may happen – be dramatic. Do you get fired?  Do you lose all of your money?  Go homeless?  Experience injury or death?  Write it down.
2. Picture the absolute best case scenario of what may happen – again, be dramatic. Does this change your life?  Does it make you rich?  Help you fall in love?  Be the one thing you’ve always been looking for in life?  Write it all down again.
3. Now, picture the most likely scenario of what will happen – let’s be realistic. This will fall somewhere between idea #1 and idea #2.  It doesn’t mean that this scenario will absolutely happen, but it’s a good framework to see the reality of your situation.

This is a simple way to remove your ego from the decision-making process.  You’re likely to realize that any exaggerated story in your head (positive or negative) is likely fabricated.

I find it to be really important to detach and look at decisions as realistically as possible.  Don’t let your emotions affect your judgment and you are likely to see things more clearly.

No one knows more about removing ego than Alex and Ana Dorr, who are practitioners of Reality-Based Leadership.  Check out our podcast below to learn how to remove your ego with daily discipline.

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” ― Haruki Murakami