The most dangerous category of poor decisions are ones that remain easily hidden from view because any instance of that type of decision is so easy to rationalize.

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Trying to eat healthier?

It’s so easy to justify that piece of cheesecake because you just had a break-up. The ice cream you gobbled down few days ago? It was your kid’s birthday so you were celebrating! That bucket of popcorn last weekend? Movie night with the family!

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Each of these decisions are easy to rationalize on their own. They feel like justifiable exceptions.

That’s why they hide from view.

It’s only when you examine them in the aggregate that you can see they will frustrate your goals.

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Decisions that are easily rationalized are the most dangerous because we don’t usually think about how those small losses accrue.

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Think about NFL 4th down decisions. Ever notice coaches often don’t go for it when the analytics say they should but they never go for it on 4th down when the analytics say they shouldn’t?

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Not going for it is easy to rationalize. The offensive line wasn’t holding. The running back wasn’t performing. Momentum wasn’t going our way.

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What’s weird is the same rationales never get applied in the reverse. We went for it even though the analytics were against us because our offensive line was outperforming. Our running back was on fire! Momentum was really going our way!

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It is only in the aggregate that you can spot the pattern.

When you identify this type of decision, where exceptions are easy to justify like eating a cupcake or not going for it on fourth down, it is helpful to make a Category Decision.

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Once you identify a category of poor decisions that will be hard to spot except in the aggregate, you can decide in advance what options you can and cannot choose that fall within that category.

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A good example of a category decision would be deciding you are a vegan instead of saying you want to eat less meat a& dairy. Be making the decision to be a vegan, you eliminate from your choice set any animal products. This means there are no exceptions allowed.

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Take Kevin Kelly, the head football coach at a high school in Arkansas. He chose to have no punter on the team. No punter means you have to go for it on fourth down. Now that’s a category decision!

11/12 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2015/08/13/the-highly-successful-high-school-coach-who-never-punts-has-another-radical-idea/

Try to identify those fourth down type of decisions in your own life and use the category decision tool to increase the chances you achieve your goals.

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