 The sad part is we're wired as we heard for indecision because it lowers our perceived risk So subconsciously we view decisions and the potential for regret as carrying a risk. Oh Well, I will regret leaving graduate school to pursue this I will regret letting down my family to pursue a podcast whatever the case may be and what ends up happening is That pushes you in an indecisive state So what we're doing here is we're looking at regret and the impact that it has on our decision-making abilities and often times Regret is caused by us taking action It's a conscious decision. I'm going to move in this direction and at some point you may think back Well, maybe I should have moved in a different direction and all the what-ifs that go along with it, but that at least Has moved you in a decisive state. Yes, that's where we want to be Yes, because indecision comes with hidden costs that we struggle to often realize Yes, now Let's talk about the psychological immune system. Okay so Professor Dan Gilbert and his research Showed that there is actually a twist to regret that we need to pay attention to here. Okay We now know that in action minimal regret action leads to more regret, but There's regret in either case and if we caused it through something we actively did and made a choice then that regrets gonna feel stronger The twist is and Dan Gilbert was able to show that this is only true in the short term and the long-term regret that we caused Through our actions hurts less because of the effects of what Gilbert termed the psychological immune system Before we talk about how that works. Let's look at a simple example So say that you have a rundown car that keeps breaking down You can make the choice to keep it and every few weeks spend money on repairs Or you could use your savings to just buy a new one Now let's say that you decide to take action and buy that new car Mm-hmm, but in a few weeks it now starts breaking down as often as the previous Yeah, Johnny's is getting a little stressed already You'll have a lot of regret for making that choice right you had a car that was breaking down you spent money and now you have the same result but Heading out to the car dealer putting down your hard-earned money buying that car. Yes There is regret there that regret is going to be Measurably stronger than the one you would have had through inaction Right if you're sitting in the repair shop again waiting for your old car to get fixed once more and regretting that You didn't buy a new one your feeling regret, but here's what happens over the long term when your brain's Psychological immune system kicks in it will work hard to turn that regret into a learning lesson So that the next time you spend harder and money on a car You'll actually do more research so that you don't end up with the same result You'll bring a friend along who's a mechanic You'll make sure you buy the extra warranty and so on your brain can actually learn from this mistake And it transforms that regret into a learning lesson But it only works if that mistake was caused by action We took and this is why we hate inaction so much because inaction causes regret and We don't realize that Action may appear to cause regret too, but that regret can be turned into valuable life lessons through action inaction and The regret that's caused by inaction does not lead to lessons. I love this So not only with indecision are you dealing with stress and pressure and staying awake at night and Dropping your immune system and all everything else. You are also missing out on a learning opportunity I mean there is so much to be gained from going forward And it's difficult. We all understand because we don't want to make the the wrong choices and the reason being is We are Living in such a market norm world as Dan Arioli was talking with us about Through all the technology that we have and with that It's a lot of ones and zeros and there are clear right paths to choose from but and there's not always going to be clear cut right choices and because of that that That makes it difficult and the more the more intelligent we are the more variable bulls there's going to to be in that and When there's not a clear right decision, this is where people start to break down because It's not given to them It bears repeating that your psychological immune system can't Turn regret from inaction into lesson the only regret that gets turned into lessons is the regret that comes from action There's nothing to be learned for the future and nothing to transform your regret into if it's inaction in the end our Psychological immune system has a hard time when it tries to find credible and positive views of inaction I mean no one has ever said I'm really glad I didn't do anything. I learned so much. I Love it. You've never said that we we are always learning from action And as we talked about I would rather live a life filled with lessons Than a life filled with regret