Wise Decisions: A Science-based Approach to Making Better Choices

by James E. Loehr, Sheila Ohlsson, Jim Seybert (Reader)

A concrete and hands-on method for improving your everyday decisions Every fifteen minutes, each of us can make ten or more small decisions. Some of them are relatively inconsequential, while others can change the course of our lives. What if you could improve all of your decisions, across the board, and start to build a healthier, more productive, and meaningful life? In Wise A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices , a team of accomplished industry experts delivers an evidence- and research-based blueprint for making the best decisions you can with the information you have. You'll learn to make the targeted, repeated investment of energy required to turn your decision-making process into one informed by reason, emotion, intuition, and science. In the book, you'll how to put the decision-making process under a microscope and learn what makes a decision truly wise; ways to help children, teens, and families make wise decisions; and how to train yourself to make wise decisions with voice training and other strategies.

Genres: Psychology

Audio CD

Published January 31, 2023

Reviews

[Mariah Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

In all of the occupational therapy I’ve been doing with my son, I have learned that if I can bring brain science to the table, I am more likely to capture his attention and get him to take me (and the therapists) seriously. We’ve been talking a lot this year about the way of the will, about making good choices no matter how we feel, etc. I was looking for a book on making decisions that could give me a break down of the brain and the decision making process. This book delivered, plus some. I took pages of notes and will probably purchase this to add to our library and have both my boys read.

It starts off with emotional regulation. Turns out we aren’t too great at making decisions when we are in a dysfunctional emotional state. He talks about the importance of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health in decision making, and how there is no separation between them. Then he begins talking about the part of the brain called the insula. This is where you’ll find your inner critic and your inner coach, which he called your inner Yoda. This isn’t necessarily a wise advisor, so he walks you through how to train it and gives journaling assignments to track its positivity/negativity, how much control you have over it, if you would say the same to a friend, etc. From there he helps you develop your Yoda Reference guide to help you train your Yoda. What is your life purpose? Your moral best self? The legacy and core values you want to have? He discusses how repeated messages get used more often because they are coated in myelin, so if our repeated messages are negative we need to strengthen our gatekeeping skills—quarantine all incoming data, assuming it’s contaminated, until it can be vetted by your skilled inner Yoda. He mentions the How We Feel app, which is something the OT has already told us about, discusses our body’s connection to our emotions (interoception), and even expands into how our brains can trick us, thinking we are reasoning, when it’s just confirmation bias. He wraps up this book by giving you a framework for how to develop a vision for your life and then walk it back into practical, daily habits that can guide our decisions in our every day lives.

[Hannah Mahr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was gifted to me a couple of years ago, but I just got around to reading it. Overall, I enjoyed it - I didn't find many of the suggestions / information about decision-making to be particularly novel (could be due to having read other books in this area, idk). Regardless, it was a relatively quick read and encouraged some self-reflection. Never a bad thing.

[Tony Thelen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read to help start the new year with fresh approach to decision making. Very helpful beyond the individual, especially as it relates to how parents raise families and build strong foundations for good decisions later in life. It isn't just a "how to" book, but it explains the reasons why thing are as they are.

Some helpful models/tools I picked up are the 7 Step process to grounding yourself before making a decision, a good list of values to guide your inner "advisor", how to manage emotion & stress in a positive and constructive way, how to perform at your best and recognize opportunities to grow, and some great exercises / thought experiments to engrain the new ways of thinking, skills, and habits.

It's a good book for people who want to improve their lives, written by some excellent people who have dedicated their lives to helping people lead positive and constructive lives.

[Loren Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about our human nature and how/why we might make some decisions we do. Also so great tools for self reflection.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep.