Not long ago I was debating whether it was worth watching the new Kingsman film.
I enjoyed the first two films, and when I heard they were doing a prequel, I decided this was something I wanted to see
But then covid happened, the cinemas shut down, and… well you know the rest.
As normality started resuming I awaited with intent to hear about the prequel coming out, but as time passed I saw countless trailers for Fast and Furious 24569 and the latest cut and paste James Bond film, but no Kingsman prequel.
Was it stuck in production hell? Had it been a victim of covid and cancelled?
My answer came when it was released out the back door to zero hype, where I found you could download it for £13.99, or if I signed up to Disney Plus watch it for free.
Being the cheap bugger I am, I decided to see if I could find a free trial to Disney Plus, then cancel it without having to pay anything – mwahaha!
But this led me to the big mistake of coming across the trailer for The Kings Man on Facebook.
Why was it a mistake? Because if you’ve ever looked to purchase anything, you’ll realise the type of people who comment on Facebook adverts are the biggest NPC’s of the highest order.
“It was boring”
“A load of rubbish”
“Went way too long”
Although I know these people are generally idiots, these negative “reviews” did put me off whether it was worth watching, and what was a must watch, well now I was indecisive.
I went back to my own logic, to justify why it would be good.
“Well it looks like it ties in with a lot of history around the World War One era, the people trashing it are probably too dumb to understand the historical elements in the film”
“Matthew Vaughn is still directing it, so it can’t be just some lame thought out cashing in on the popularity of the first two films”
By this time, I had spent a lot of time deciding on what was essentially in the context of life, a tiny purchase.
Yet I find myself over analysing things more and more.
Why are a lot of modern-day decisions for even the simplest thing so hard?
And what can we do about it?
How to be more decisive in your decision making
The reason why we overthink everything nowadays is because as a society we are overloaded with information.
In simpler times, if one had wanted to see a movie, aside from the views of our circle of friends/family, and maybe a film critique we respected the views of, we would have just gone to see it, and decided for ourselves whether it was a masterpiece, or whether it just outright sucked.
Nowadays as well of those in your small circle, you are exposed to endless content – social media is a minefield of different views, as battle lines are drawn as two moronic sides shout each other down to prove who is most right on every little thing.
Take “should I watch a movie” out of the equation and change it to fitness advice, politics, how to raise a family, or something else and you will soon realise we are always get bombarded with viewpoints – whether we solicit these opinions or not!
How can we stop getting overwhelmed with all this information?
When making a decision, there are a few approaches you can take:
- Ignore all extremely positive, or extremely negative views as these are biased in their belief – stick to the middle ground.
- Measure up – is the amount of time I spend making the decision, worth the cost (time or money), in making the decision?
- Ask – what would you advise a friend?
- Focus on who you trust the most.
Ignore anything extremely positive or extremely negative
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re looking for your next holiday? You go on somewhere like Trip Advisor, find where you want to go and start researching the hotels, taking into consideration the basics like time and location.
Then you look at the rating – 4 out of 5 stars – most of the reviews are positive, but then you come across the 1 star review that brought the score down
“Terrible – ‘whot’ ever you do don’t go there AT ALL COSTS1!!!!!!!”
Despite all these positive nice things people are saying, you focus on that one negative review.
First you need to recognise how meaningless star ratings are. People who give five-star reviews are either doing so because they feel they have to, or because they are getting paid.
And one star reviews you realise, are just from the most petty people in the world, or someone with a major axe to grind determined to try and cause damage.
Focus in between – look at two star to four star – reviews, those people really put thought into that!
This doesn’t just apply to reviews – but people’s opinions: two people of two extreme ends of political views can read the same information and can come to two separate conclusions. Do you know what that is?
“The reason widget production is down is because of the idiots in charge, this wouldn’t happen if the last party I liked was still in power”
“The reason widget production is down, because of the last idiots in charge, lucky we have the party I like in power to turn this around”
Like everything in life, the most logical response falls somewhere in the middle.
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What is the levity of the decision – is it worth it?
In introducing this post, I talk about buying a film that costs slightly above working one hour on minimum wage plus two hours of my life.
If I buy it and don’t like it, I won’t be out of pocket from the decision, and although my life is finite and I won’t get the two hours back, I probably would have spent it watching something else.
When assessed like that you realise you don’t need to spend ages weighing up the options – just do it.
Now if I’m looking at buying a house for £200,000 – that takes a bit more thinking.
How long would that take me to pay off, will it need lots of repairs and can I keep up with the payments?
Owning a house, is a life changing decision and requires a bit more care and research.
Therefore, think about how much of your energy is appropriate for each situation where a decision is made.
What would you tell a friend?
I really like this idea shared by Jim over at Borden’s Blather: Can’t Make a Decision? Use These Nine Words.
“What would you tell your best friend to do?”
This type of thinking makes me reflect on the lessons I learnt about talking to yourself with more compassion.
Those who put themselves down are often challenged to change their negative self-talk with the question “Do you talk to your friends the same way you talk to yourself?”
The answer is of course no – and the reality is that we often give our friends better advice than what we would actually do ourselves.
Remember this with your decision making – trust your own experiences, and don’t let all the information out there fuel those tiny doubts in your mind.
Focus on who you trust the most
A friend is an example of someone you may trust the most. And it brings up the question – who are people that you respect because of their integrity, their experience, their knowledge?
Is it dopey John on Facebook, who doesn’t need to switch his brain off to relax, as it’s already not functioning 24 hours a day.
Or would it be someone you respect?
I know who I choose.
Note: the only downside to this is if you just focus on to people who share the same views as you, this might make you resistant to learning from other perspectives, and stuck in your own beliefs. Therefore approach this with care – I like to listen to people who can rationally call out both sides to an argument.
Conclusion
It’s a fact – there is a lot more information and way to many options for us to be able to cope with everything.
Following strategies to make yourself more decisive and agreeing to yourself that you will only over analyse when the situation calls for it can save you a lot of time and mental energy.
When making a decision ask – who do you trust, and make sure to trust yourself!
Wishing you the best in your success
James @Perfect Manifesto
Copyright © 2023 James M.Lane perfectmanifesto.com
Perfect Manifesto 
Two things; The King’s Man was terribly boring. I fell asleep and I’m a Kingsman fan.
Second, I always love the “it’s not my party’s fault things turned bad” excuse. Especially when the falling apart follows such a regular pattern.
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Ah no! I’ve not actually got round to watching it yet – might have to wait until its on free TV.
It’s a good excuse, because I’ve spent a bit too much time on social media I see people use it on everything!
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I’m not much into social media except at the level of Strava…
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