You know, some people are more decisive than others. This means some of you are able to make quick decisions and some of you are able to make quick and nonetheless good decisions, some of you just need more time and the possibility to evaluate all involved arguments, pro’s and con’s, possible impacts, … and some of you are just procrastinating decisions and wait until the time decides. Whatever works best for you in whatever situation.

I am for example the evaluative decision type. I am trying to get as much information as possible to make a good decision. And usually I get too much information which balances out the pro’s and con’s and forces me to make a gut decision nonetheless, which I could have made already right in the beginning. But, to see it positive, I’ve learned something during the process.

But listen, I mean read, at times, it might be necessary to decide quickly. Let me give you a real life example for this. Today morning I was running through the forest to office. Running can be exhausting, depending on your fitness level, environment, personal speed goals, underground, light conditions, motivation bursts due to approaching wild pigs or Blair witch experiences when running at night …. point is, I started breathing. Well I do this usually too, but I started to breath more heavily. And then, suddenly, I saw a fly crossing my path, in the corner of my right eye. Unfortunately the fly decided to cross the road in front of me. Obviously she underestimated my fitness level or overestimated her flying capabilities. Nonetheless she tried. Do you know situations where you see what’s coming next but you are not able to avoid it anymore but your brain is still able to show you what will happen? Exactly. The fly wasn’t strong enough to withstand the air flow from my breathing in. She was just to slow and now guess what, I inhaled the poor creature.

And now, the core of this story. There are initially two options how to proceed. The first option is to spit the foreign body out, the second is to chew and gulp. So a decision has to be made, quickly. And I am sure many of you will go for option one, at least the ones which are not starving at this point in time. But (with raised index finger) here comes the first wisdom. The most obvious option is not in all cases the best one. Think, in case the inhalation step has just started and you don’t have enough air inside you yet to be able to create an airflow into the opposite direction which is strong enough to carry a little winged animal. What will happen then? Exactly, a reflex will force you to breath more and deep in before an air direction change can be initiated. Well some of you might like the buzzing sound within your lungs and if you are happy, the sound waves might interfere and annihilate your tinnitus sound waves. The only caveat is, how to convince the fly of a similar sleeping rhythm as you have. You need to become creative here.

So the decision became a special case depending on the progress of the inhalation. So at times chewing might be the more successful option. But here comes the next problem. How to chew a fly? Not to chew gives her a slow and painful death through gastric acid. The fading and finally silent buzzing will burn into your mind and conscious. So you better give the creature a short and sudden death. But now many questions are emerging. Which teeth to use? One or more precise chewing movements? Do you need to support the fly with your tongue? If yes, how? Will the fly give you dental plague? Questions over questions to be considered before any action can be performed.

And all these considerations have to be done in a split second to make a quick decision. But, on the plus side is, this can be trained. There are enough flies outside in the world. And even better, start slowly and take all the time you need to finally make a good decision. If you need more time, just close your mouth that the creature in charge can’t escape during the decision making process.

So, making quick and good decisions is a constitutional capability. To visualize the necessity of quick decisions, replace the fly with an angry looking hornet.

See 😉

PS: To resolve this, I decided to enrich my breakfast with some additional proteins today. Yay!