Ever felt conflicted when making a decision? What if you could navigate your way through your choices with confidence and clarity? Join us at the Observation Station, where we'll be unwrapping the intriguing art of decision making. We'll be dissecting cognitive biases that often mislead us - and, importantly, discussing how to avoid falling into these common traps. We'll also be introducing you to the SWOT analysis, a tool that can highlight your strengths and pinpoint areas that need improvement.
But it's not all about work. Taking a break is absolutely essential - and we'll be exploring how stepping back from a situation helps you reset and refocus. Balancing work and play is the key to being productive, and we'll explain why. Plus, we'll be sharing how a good belly laugh can not only lighten your mood but also help you breeze through tough times. So, hop aboard the Observation Station, and let's start observing together!
Ever felt conflicted when making a decision? What if you could navigate your way through your choices with confidence and clarity? Join us at the Observation Station, where we'll be unwrapping the intriguing art of decision making. We'll be dissecting cognitive biases that often mislead us - and, importantly, discussing how to avoid falling into these common traps. We'll also be introducing you to the SWOT analysis, a tool that can highlight your strengths and pinpoint areas that need improvement.
But it's not all about work. Taking a break is absolutely essential - and we'll be exploring how stepping back from a situation helps you reset and refocus. Balancing work and play is the key to being productive, and we'll explain why. Plus, we'll be sharing how a good belly laugh can not only lighten your mood but also help you breeze through tough times. So, hop aboard the Observation Station, and let's start observing together!
Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look around and think to yourself my God, everything is weird. Well, we do a lot. This is the Observation Station, a unique, entertaining and hilarious podcast. If we observe it, we talk about it. Anything and everything, anything and everything. Let's get weird and let's have some fun. This is the Observation Station and now your host, tommy Heights.
Speaker 2:
Oh, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Observation Station, your go-to podcast for educational and comedic insights. Today we're diving into a topic that affects us all the art of decision making. Whether you're choosing between career paths or deciding what to have for dinner, the choices we make shape our lives in a profound way. So we can make better decisions, let's find out All right. Main contents decision making, it's an art form that combines psychology, philosophy and even a bit of game theory. So here's how it's going to go today. I'm going to go through a couple of scenarios and figure it out. Where you know, just saying, hey, this is what we need to do. Make things better, not worse. It's all in our head. So, when it comes down to this, don't make it where it's too complicated. That's what I say because life's already as complicated as it needs to be already.
Speaker 2:
So decision making, it's an art form that combines, like I said, psychology, philosophy and game theory. So it's a skill that can be honed, and today we'll explore all three of the key aspects. So, cognitive biases our brains are wired in a way that can sometimes lead us astray. So what does that mean? Well, that definitely means that our brains are wired in a way that we think we're right and we just keep going into circles in our head. Other than that, you know it. Just like the sunk cost fallacy, it can make a stick with a decision long after it's proven to be a mistake, and simply because we've invested time or resources into it. So being aware of such biases can help us make more rational choices.
Speaker 2:
So there are several models designed to aid in decision making. One such model is the SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats. I'm going to have to be doing a SWOT analysis because, as a growing individual in the sales trade, I need to have it to see what is it that I need to work on. You're going to say, oh well, you know, I'm pretty good here, pretty good here, but this is going to highlight the things that are your weaknesses. Everybody has weaknesses. This is not something that is just like oh well, you know, I can't believe that, I'm not good at this. Well, everybody's not good at something, so figure it out. Don't make it too hard on yourself. This is going to be where it's going to be a little bit of a different thing to say hey look, what is it that I need to do to make my life better, and I know that this is what it's going to make it better.
Speaker 2:
A lot of times people know and they just keep doing the bad stuff, thinking it's going to change, it's just going to be insanity. That's really what it is. We invest time, resources and being aware of the such biases to make more rational choices as cognitive bias. But then you have decision frameworks and there are several models designed to aid in decision making. One such is the SWAT and basically then the other is your gut, and if you go through those, we're golden.
Speaker 2:
A lot of times, when you say I don't feel good, it gives me a bad gut feeling. Every time I have reverted from that instinct, it's gone south, shit has gone terrible because there's a reason. You're gut saying yeah, this is not a good thing that I should be doing. Every single time I've gone against that hunch, it's all gone downhill. So that's where you have the intuition versus the analysis. Sometimes our gut feelings are incredibly accurate. Other times they can be misleading. So striking a balance between intuitive and analytical thinking is key.
Speaker 2:
For example, where I have to be making phone calls to different clients and seeing about getting their business.
Speaker 2:
There's a lot of analysis I have to do before I even call them because they're going to say, oh well, we have this, we have that, we have this, we have that, we don't need you.
Speaker 2:
Well, luckily I've done my observance of their website to see who's their suppliers, where are the pros and cons from what they have and how I can frame it in a way to say hey look, we're going to give you a little bit of a breakdown here. The elevator pitch of who we are, why people like us and had always had a dealer or supplier before us of products and that's why they give us a chance is because X, y and Z. It's a very simplistic way of doing it. When you're on the phone, there's a lot of heated moments where someone's like you know I don't need this because you're stuff, I got somebody, we've been working with them for years, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's kind of like when I was calling people for health insurance and that was kind of funny where people were like yeah, I don't need this health insurance because I don't get sick and all this other stuff.
Speaker 2:
Well, when I told them this way of thinking, I said well, I don't think that you plan on getting into a car accident today, but you have car insurance, correct? Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah, I have car insurance, okay. Well, you don't plan on breaking your leg today when you walk out of your house today, do you? Well, no, what if it happens and you don't have health insurance, how much money do you have to take care of it? Well, I mean, and that's when you have to kind of bring it back to saying this is the premium. So this is the cost per month of the health insurance that's going to keep you, your family and livelihood away from any bankruptcy. If you have this health insurance, because it's going to mitigate the cost. If you go into something where it's like a surgery that's, you know, not an elective one or something that you have to get in there emergency-wise, that will mitigate you going into complete hell of bankruptcy, where that the hospitals are a business. They're going to run that tab until the kingdom come. I mean, if they can charge 50, 60-something dollars for a Tylenol, you could imagine what else things cost. I mean, it is unbelievable the amount of money it is to be inside of a hospital when you go to these different countries. You know Canada and da-da-da-da-da. These are not things that people think about. So you have to understand in my sales trade of the customer preferences and market trends that are equally important to the person you're speaking to. A sales representative and a C-suite of the same company are going to have two completely different ways of thinking because that executive has more skin in the game in the company versus a sales representative that just is trying to get the bottom line, make the commission and move forward. Not every single time that person wants to keep moving up. Maybe they just want to stay in that same position, collect, commission and move on with their life. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. It really is where I figure what is it that I need to do to make things easier and better? And what it is is.
Speaker 2:
A lot of people find it where, if they keep doing things, that they get empathy from other people to say hey, look, it's going to be okay, you just keep trying, just keep trying. They love that empathy. Oh, someone's actually thinking of me. No, no, no, no, no, you got to figure out. If you're not in a good position financially, career-wise, relationship-wise, what is the decision? It's one or the other for a lot of things. People can say, oh, it's complicated. A lot of times it's really not complicated If you took the factor in the equation of emotion completely out, which I have to do all the time on a lot of things.
Speaker 2:
Emotion is what clouds Emotions, is the gray area in the middle and people, oh, you need to mo no, no, no, no, no. It's very A and B. And then they say, well, they'll make them feel. No, there's the emotion. And then it's like, well, how do you think I'll make that person think emotion? So that's the gray area there and, as a person with Osbergers, emotions are very easy to cut off for me. I don't need to have it where people tell me their sob stories all the time because I'm thinking, okay, time is money, I'm wasting time listening and that means I'm losing money. Okay, because some people, every single day, even if you fix things for them, and try to say, hey, let me make the decision to help this person out, because it seems like they're hurting and every time you do something it's like an onion. That's another layer of shit. Oh my God, thank God I finally got this. And then, oh my God, no, I didn't know that this was a problem. It's like every time that I didn't know this was a problem.
Speaker 2:
So there's people that are just the chicken little that the sky is falling, everything that they say to you. Those are called energy vampires. I was reading in a book called the energy bus If I was correct, I think it's the energy bus where these vampires energy vampires is the name in the book. What they do every single time you talk to them is just have it where. You're listening to them and you get tired by all the shit that these people say. Oh my God, I lost my XYZ. I can't believe it. My dog had got hit by a car. I'm feeling nauseous. My relationships are down the tubes. My kids don't want to talk to me. It's like, bro, I can see why no one wants to talk to you. I mean, look at you. This is just hell to even listen to this. So there's your decision Should I come back and come to this person? Every time that they want to talk to me, just keep saying you're busy, they're going to go to somebody else they need to feed off of somebody, and that's what that energy vampire is, is where they got to find somebody to leech onto. They get where they just spew all the stuff. That's just their stuff. And that's where you go and say, hey look, I don't need this in my life, I have enough problems, I don't need to have this person's problems.
Speaker 2:
So, in conclusion, decision making is a complex but learnable skill. By understanding our cognitive biases and employing decision frameworks while balancing the intuition and analysis, we can make choices that are more aligned with our goals and values. And you gotta remember too, even a bad decision provides a learning opportunity. So everything that you see in the surface and what happens during the day is the most current feeling in your heart and your mind. Sometimes that also can make a bad decision by saying oh, I'm angry right now, I'm gonna spew this. Bah. Oh, my God, it's kind of like Pandora's Box Once you say, it can't come back in and people will remember it forever. If you have it where, it's like, wow, I can't believe you said that. Oh man, I didn't mean to. You know, some people say things completely out of anger, where you go way too far. Depending on what it is. It's relative depending on the person, but I'm just giving you an example. So you look.
Speaker 2:
Teaser for the next episode. Don't miss it. We're gonna delve into thinking outside of the box. So gonna give you some examples of my life. I have a very unconventional way of living and don't have a college degree in the bachelor's four years, but I have a two years. Had to make it on my own with minimal education. Not saying I'm lowly educated, obviously, but in the eyes of corporate America, not having a four year degree is nothing really to them. They're like okay, this guy needs to go back to school. Luckily, nowadays things are a lot more liberal to say, hey, look, maybe we can have somebody that doesn't have this skill or this degree, but they have experience in the workplace. So thinking outside the box will be the next episode. It's gonna be a great one to show you the unconventional life of Tommy Heights here on the observation station. So, with that being said, you guys take it easy as always, keep smiling and just know everything is gonna be all right. All right, man, ladies and gentlemen, have a good one.
Speaker 1:
You've been listening to the observation station. We find everyday life and everyday situations hilarious. We hope you've enjoyed the show. We know we had a blast. Make sure to like, rate and review, and be sure to tell a friend about the show. That would help too. See you next time on the observation station.
