← Build with Leila Hormozi
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Do you ever have analysis paralysis? And maybe life feels like this. This is what you're gonna feel like when you're making a decision. I just did a live about overcoming procrastination, and a lot of people brought up analysis paralysis. And so that's why I wanted to talk about it today. I think what we first want to do is define what analysis paralysis is. And I'm gonna give it my own definition because I don't like the dictionary. So I would define analysis paralysis as something somebody who is compulsively analyzing a decision or situation to the point that they are not making a decision, but rather spending their time analyzing it rather than executing. Here's the thing. I actually tend to be the type of person who I always want to get all the information before I make a decision. And I tend to fall into the trap of wanting to get more information from wanting to do an analysis, wanting to build out a test case, wanting to build an argument for each side. And I have had to really learn how to balance making a decision quickly with analyzing my options. I think that the most relevant time that this happened to me was when I was trying to decide if I wanted to start a business. Honestly, it was a cycle that was probably 18 months of just staying in my head. Do I start a business? If I start a business, what business might start? Okay, well, do I have the skills to do that? Do I have the money? Do I have the resources? And then, okay, well, if I start a business, what if these things happen? I should weigh out all these options, and I should make sure that before I go into this big decision that I thought about all the different ways it'll affect my life. Analyzing the situation caused me to procrastinate making the actual decision. Because what is making a decision? It is cutting off the alternative path. When you get married, you cut off the path of sleeping with other people, of dating other people, and you've committed to this path of this one person. And I look at other decisions in life as the same way. And I think that can be intimidating for people at times. And so because of it, we feel much more comfortable gaining more information. But most of the time, what people do when they're in this situation is they're trying to gain all the information possible so that they can just affirm the biases they already have that keep them feeling safe, which is usually not taking a risk and staying where we are. The reason that I have realized over time that it is only useful to gain information to a certain extent is because at Some point, Some point. What you realize is that most decisions are not made based on logic. Our emotions and our biases affect how we interpret logic. And so they will sway us no matter what. So what is more important is that we become aware of our biases and of our emotions around the situation and then realize how they might be working against us. And here's the thing, is that most of the time, many things that we will make decisions on will not pan out for us. There are gonna be many times that we hire somebody and they're not the right fit. There are gonna be many times that we take a risk to start a business and we have to shut it down and start a different one. There are gonna be many times that we take a job and then realize a year later it's not really a job for us. Does that make it a bad decision or was it just the next step and now you've gotta take another one? And I think that a lot of the times what weighs on people is they make reversible decisions with an irreversible decision filter. And the reality is there are a few decisions that are that way in our lives, but many of the ones that people get caught up in are absolutely reversible. Rather than thinking, you know, is this going to work or not, I just look at what's the worst case scenario if I take path A, B and C, and then I really visualize living through that worst case. And which worst case do I find most tolerable? Or which one would I prefer to live out? And that's often how I like to use making my decisions. Because the reality is, if you're trying to make decisions thinking that everything is going to work every time and every decision you make is going to be amazing, I think that's wrong. Lots of decisions are going to be mediocre at best. But the goal, in my opinion, is just to not make any that are going to be the nuclear bomb on your life, that are going to basically zero out all the other good decisions that you've made. Here's how I like to frame it for myself in the time that I'm spending spending analyzing this decision. So instead of 30 more days of analyzing, if I took those 30 days and just tested it out, tried it, which one would give me more information to make the next best move after 30 days? And what I have found is that a lot of the time just doing it gives me way more information and feedback than sitting there twiddling my thumbs, reading books, calling people. I think that when you're confronted with a decision. The first thing you need to ask yourself is, what are my assumptions that would make this a good or bad decision? And then list out the top three. And then allow yourself the time to gather information or data to figure out if those assumptions are true or false. Once you've done that, what more information do you need? But at some point, you have to be able to put guardrails around yourself so that you're not sitting in paralysis forever. If you don't make the decision, then you will have the decision made by default because eventually it'll get made for you. Things change, environment changes, etc. I can't tell you how many people want to start a business and they've got an idea for what that business is. And then five years later, after thinking about it for five years, homie, the market's, it's gone. There's no more opportunity anymore. The same thing can be said with any other decision that you're making in life. Maybe now, finally, you've decided this is the girl to marry. Well, guess what, buddy, you waited too long and now she doesn't want to marry you. The worst thing you can do is not make a decision. The best thing you can do is make a decision, accept that it could be incorrect, and also have a path to course. Correct if it is an assumption, would be a statement you believe to be a fact that is crucial in determining if the decision is good or bad. So say you want to start a chain of healthy food restaurants, and you're like, I've got this idea and I want to start them. And I think I want to start them in Miami because people really like to eat healthy in Miami. And I think that the price range of between 17 and $25 per plate is going to be right based on the income level. Ok, so some of the assumptions, the things that we're stating as facts, are that people in Miami will want to eat this food. Okay, well, how do we know that's true? People in Miami make a certain amount of money, and because of that, they will be able to afford this food. How do we know that's true? A lot of times there's statements that we believe to be facts that we need to test in order to figure out is this a good decision or not. I think it's helpful in chunking it down to having between one and three assumptions that we want to determine are they true or false, and then that's it. You limit yourself to those things. Now, I would say the only other Piece on top of that is that a piece that is not always factored into decision making might also just be preferences. You might realize that something might not be the ideal decision or path to take, but you still prefer it. And that's also okay to say. I get that this may not be the best decision, but I prefer this decision. When we started acquisition.com I had some assumptions that we tested and I found out some of them are false. I assumed that because of our social presence, people would be compliant with our recommendations and always adhere. I have been proven false by that. That is not correct. Another assumption that we made is that if you take minority stake in a business, you have less expectations than if you take majority. I have seen that to be the reverse is true. But all of these things are things that I could have spent years trying to figure out, or I could just get in the arena and do it and be okay with the fact that it's going to be imperfect. We're going to make changes, we're going to iterate. You know, who expects a business that's between one and four years old to not be iterating and making changes? You know, you should expect that you're gonna be doing a lot of that because there's a lot of assumptions. You find out if they're true or not, and then you take that feedback and you adjust your behavior. That's what learning is. I think in so many instances, especially in business, people are like, well, will they want this? Will they not? People vote with their dollars. And so at the end of the day, is their product market fit? I don't know. Are people buying it and then telling their friends to buy it? I think a lot of why people stay stuck and don't make a decision and call it analysis paralysis is because they have conflicting reinforcement. They have some negative, some positive. Which means usually, is it even a decision? If it's like this way, clearly you're going to yourself and this way you're going to succeed. That's not a decision, that's just common sense. So a decision is when you have two options that are equally as appealing and unappealing. And so you have conflicting reinforcement. A true decision is made when neither path seems better or worse than the other. You're not going to feel good. Because the reality is, is that every time you make a decision and you cut off the alternatives, you lose what you could have had. But here's the thing. I think regret comes from constantly looking back on the path not taken. And one thing I do not allow myself to do, and I actually think this is something I do very well, is I do not look back at the things that I could have, should have, wish I would have done. Because all that does, it makes us feel bad. It doesn't help us move forward. The key to solving for analysis paralysis is to make a plan ahead of time. I want you to remember it is never going to feel really good because things that feel really good are common sense decisions, always feel scary and uncomfortable and especially when you have multiple options and all those things could work or not work.