Is it really hard for us to make good decisions? People are usually lampooned for deciding to do something based on what seems more atractive to them. This time, I found this talk on how we can change our hasty behavior when we make decisions. The speaker is psychologist Dan Gilbert, who  claims our beliefs about what make us happy are often wrong. Among the things he mentions in his speech, he emphasizes the fact that we tend to be really impatient. For instance, if we had to decide between getting a $50 price today and a $60 price in a month, most people would go for the $50 bill.

Why? Well, waiting does not appeal to the common Joe.  On the other hand, Dan also mentioned this example: If we see that the we are going to get $100 off a new TV is we go to the distributor. The problem is that it would cost us $100 on gas to get there. However, we mostly do not see that. If we believe we are actually saving money, then our thoughts engender a sense of prudence. Nonetheless, if we do realize that it is not worth to schlep all the way to the distributor for a TV that will cost the same anyway, we have progressed. Whether or not we want to end up like ornery idiots, who complain all the time because they do not know where their money went is up to us. According to Dan, we are used to make comparisons. Therefore, we should use them to give us a hand rather than make us see things that are not there. Dan´s example can be applied in lots of situations. He even talked about the lottery. Even though people know it is unlikely the will win the lottery, they still get a ticket because they see winners on TV. To instance another situation: If I squish my belly and notice I am not that in shape, I would plan to go to the gym for at least 6 months to start seeing results. Notwithstanding, since I do not like waiting that much, I might as well end up wasting my money in one of those useless abs machines I see in infomercials. We can obviously see that the results we get at anything are correlated with patience and hard work ab initio. Now if you want your enthusiasm towards solving some of your seemingly insurmountable problems be kindled, stick around a while longer and watch the video I will post.