Not every idea that comes into your mind deserves your attention.
Not every idea is meaningful.
And not every thought you think is good for your life and is worth keeping.
Wikipedia lists around 200 cognitive biases, predictable ways our thinking goes wrong.
A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking.
It happens when we process and interpret information in ways that feel logical and true but aren’t.
Biases are mental shortcuts. They help us navigate a complex world quickly, just not always accurately.
Example of a bias: availability heuristic.
We give more weight to information that comes to mind easily or vividly.
Plane crash headlines. What's social media algorithm keep bringing to you? What keeps coming into your email.
Your brain (and mine) will literally judge something as more true or more important simply because it appeared in your head more often.
Nobody becomes bias-free.
But almost everyone can build better decision-making habits to work around bias to get better results.
One simple practice:
Keep a parking lot for “great ideas”, like an idea journal (many successful entrepreneurs have them)
Write your ideas down.
Evaluate them later, during a reflection session, every week or so.
Don’t start executing just because an idea showed up.
The more mature business owners I’ve worked with, the ones who built something substantial from nothing, know this well.
To build something great, you must say no to a lot of ideas.
They’ve also learned that ideas are almost nothing on their own.
Without the right opportunity, matching resources, timing, a sprinkle of luck, and a truckload of sustained execution, ideas stay ideas, and sometimes a waste of time.
I once heard Alex Hormozi say:
“Every day I could have about 100 ideas about things in business I could work on. When I write them down most of them sound like total nonsense a month later.”
Most things we regret later, or keep repeating even though we know they’re not working, started as ideas too.
A thought.
An assumption.
A decision that felt right in the moment.
If every idea were a good one, we wouldn’t:
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Prioritize social media over our learning
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Choose food that makes us sick, not healthier
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Stay in relationships that drain us instead of growing us
Not everything that comes to your mind is working for you.
Not every idea is possible (for you).
Not every idea is a good investment of your time.
When I coach clients, I know something important:
Every suggestion I make needs a clear explanation of why it’s worth their consideration.
But when we hear our own thoughts, we rarely apply the same standard.
We assume: If I thought it, it must matter.
And that’s where things quietly go wrong. Sometimes for years and decades.
So, over to you, dear reader,
Where are you still treating your ideas as the most important source of truth in your decisions, and where would a more deliberate evaluation process lead to better results?
