Why You Should Keep A Decision Journal

The last time you made a major life or work decision, how did it turn out?

Do you know?

If you’re like a lot of us, you probably can’t say how it worked out. Not entirely. For one thing, it’s difficult to remember all the circumstances around what forced you to make the decision and even what all your other options were. As years go by, you forget a lot of those details. For another, it’s almost impossible to know whether or not a different course of action would have led to a better result.

But mostly, evaluating decisions requires us to keep in check a common human psychological bias: rationalization.

Post-decision, as the results unfold, we often start rationalizing why it was the right decision to make no matter what our other options were, and we start explaining to ourselves why our current circumstances are probably for the best. And that assumes a strong internal locus of control. For those of us who focus more on external factors, we likely draw a few “everything happens for a reason” or “it all works out in the end” cards when re-evaluating our decision.

That’s why one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received…which I received third-hand…was to keep a decision journal.