It makes us uncomfortable when someone in authority changes their mind. We expect our leaders to be both knowledgeable and decisive. If your boss oscillates on key decisions, it’s difficult to work efficiently, unless of course you can somehow predict and plan for the next change (e.g., 2025 international trade policies). But decisions, both conscious and subconscious, are a big part of our daily life.

Before I retired from my STEM career a little over a year ago, many of my decisions felt preordained. Sure, I could choose whether to get up at 5:00 am and go to the gym and it was theoretically up to me if I should head to the office following my workout. Hitting the snooze button a few times and then calling in sick just never seriously occurred to me. The desire to stay fit and pay the bills always took priority. Since exiting the daily grind, each of my days is a clean slate, and the decisions seem to have multiplied.

Research by Professor Sheena Iyengar of Columbia University, an acknowledged expert, estimates that the average American makes approximately 70 conscious decisions every day (there is no scientific basis for the widely published number of 35,000 daily choices, although there are certainly some subconscious ones which are hard to count).  Nevertheless, each decision is different, and it is undeniable that we make a lot of them. And as Dumbledore advised “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”. <continue reading>