I know everyone and their dog tells you to keep a journal, write out your thoughts, question your ideas. But there’s a reason for that.
When you write out your ideas, it forces you to look at them a little bit more objectively — in fact, it’s almost like it’s not you having them. You start explaining why you sold all your shit and moved to Tahiti and as you’re cresting the third paragraph, it starts to dawn on you, “This is fucking insane… who does this?”
You do, bucko.
That is, assuming your decisions are run on auto-pilot. Writing out major life decisions cuts off that auto-pilot and forces you to evaluate your assumptions.
One thing I like to do when I’m mulling over a major decision is to simply draw a line down the middle of a page and write out all the risks and costs on one side, and all the potential benefits on the other. This simple exercise alone can often clarify where your biases lie and what you’re missing.