Reversible & Irreversible Decisions

There are two kinds of decisions you’re facing every day. The ones you can easily reverse and the ones you can’t.

Reversible decisions don’t require a significant financial or time investment. If you try out new software and don’t find it useful, you can easily cancel the subscription after a few months. If you take an online course on a new subject and figure out midway that it doesn’t interest you as you thought it would, you can quit it and go on with your day.

The irreversible decisions are decisions that either require a significant financial or time investment. If you buy a house, you can’t easily get out of it. If you want to pursue a career in medicine, you have to go through medical school, which requires quite a few years of your life.

Before you make any decision, try to figure out which one you’re facing. If it’s reversible, make it a soon as possible without much thinking. You can change it again tomorrow if it doesn’t work out. And if you’re looking at an irreversible decision, take as much time as you need to assess all potential benefits and drawbacks before you finally make it.

And of course, the worst you can do in any case is delay the decision into infinity. As soon as you know the answer make the decision and move forward. There’s no point in lingering or delaying the inevitable.