“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman
The easiest way to fool yourself is with memory. We tend to paint our past selves in a generous light.
There’s a way to stop letting your memory trick you: keep a decision journal. Every time I make a big decision, I write down my reasoning. One way is to write an email to yourself and snooze it for the future.
A recent entry of mine:
“Deploying 25% of my cash here into US stocks — especially sectors beat up over COVID. This doesn’t feel like the start of a recession, but I’m not willing to go all-in on that.”
Today is a perfect day to start. You may be making some big decisions right now with your health or finances. Choosing not to act is also a decision. It’s often the right one, but you can leave that analysis to your future self.