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We are faced with hundreds of choices each day. Some of these are big and consequential decisions whereas others seem minor.
When it comes to big decisions, we are more likely to take some time to consider our choices first. We are less likely to do so for what appear to be unimportant decisions, but these seemingly minor choices add up to make a big impact on our lives. These small choices, ones that take less than five minutes, make up the bulk of our decision-making inventory and as such can add up to even greater consequence than the decisions that we think about carefully. Despite their import, most people make these daily small decisions (and even some of the big ones) without careful consideration and are guided by various biases and external influences rather than rational plans to attain a desired outcome.

While there are a number of forces that factor into decision-making – including rational thought and the influence of emotions – all of these are ultimately derived from and processed in the brain.

What generates the impulsive urge that pulls us toward the small immediate reward, and what gives us the capacity to override or inhibit this impulsive urge in order to choose the large delayed reward?

The ability to put the brakes on in the context of snap decisions relies on largely the same brain circuitry as inhibitory control during deliberative decision-making, but also on a few additional players.

We humans have innate drives that evolved to help us feed and protect ourselves. Yet often, these drives act in ways that sabotage our chances for happiness and success.

They make us focus on instant but fleeting rewards, and the drives also get entangled with our Egos — making us obsessed with “feeding and protecting” delusional mind-made identities that aren’t who we really are. The way through the maze is simply awareness. By growing aware of how this inner mischief distorts and limits us, we naturally open up to a larger state of being — joyful, creative, fully present to life.

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