Alex Shalman.comPractical Personal Development

It’s time to destroy the pros and cons method of decision making once and for all. Pros and cons are soooo blah…grey…BORING. Why not go for the all or nothing mentality? I mean, you only live once, right?

Ever wonder what kind of conversations successful people have? No, it’s not gossip or negativity. A few weeks ago at Derek Sivers’ dinner party, he brought up his new philosophy on making decisions in his own life.

So if you’re not going to be thinking in terms of blah, grey, boring things that you could be doing in your life, then what’s left? Black and white, extreme opposites, what you don’t want and what you really really want – that being your HELL YEA!

In his HELL YEA article Derek gave a recent example of this principle when he was choosing his new employee. No one in the first round of interviews was really a HELL YEA, so instead of picking one because he had to pick one, he scrapped the whole thing and took a new approach to interviewing that brought in a HELL YEA employee.

In my own life, my HELL YEA has been dental school. After the first time that I didn’t get into dental school, I was discouraged, and at the same time I had an opportunity to go for a sales job with 6-figure potential. As I was weighing out the risk/reward and pros/cons, it hit me that dentistry is my HELL YEA, so I applied for my masters program and ultimately got into dental school.

Derek pointed out that the HELL YEA principle is congruent to Steve Pavlina’s principle in Personal Development For Smart People. If whatever you’re aiming for isn’t a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10 then it might as well just be a 1. If it’s clearly a 1, we do something about it, but the real danger is in those 6s and 7s in where we feel comfortable enough to settle. Forget all that, if something isn’t a HELL YEA 9, or 10, then just-say-no.

You don’t have to use this only for big decisions in life such as careers choices, who you’re going to marry, or where you’re going to live. Try to use the HELL YEA principle for the small everyday decisions as well, such as what you’re going to eat, who you’re going to hang out with, and what ways you’re going to stimulate your personal growth!

This brings me to my final question. I would love to see nothing more then everyone in the world going for their HELL YEA. So… What’s your HELL YEA?

Elsewhere: How To Quit Your Job by Burning the Ships

NEW: Buy a “What’s Your HELL YEA!?” T-shirt (All profits will go to charity)

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