The good things and the bad things.
Everything has two sides. One is good and one is bad. And the realm we exist in is mostly grey because we choose and decide what is good and what is bad. In the process of making that decision, it is inevitable to be confused between the should and the want and it’s only natural for us to tilt towards the want.
A pro and con list is a perfect way of solving this seemingly never ending problem which comes in between every time you have to make a decision.
Here are a few ways in which making a pro-con list can actually help you.
1. Makes you brainstorm about all your options
It makes you think about everything and all the roads you can take to get to where you wanna go. Is taking the short cut necessary? This will tell you.
2. Allows you to get past the optimism bias
Optimism bias is being biased between what you should want and what you want which gives rise to a nasty habit called wishful thinking. Making a list keeps it at bay and allows you to think as rationally as possible.
3. Helps you realize what really is important to you
It helps you realize that what’s in your heart is what matters and that is what you should do because that’s the most important thing to you even if there are more cons, but this one thing overweighs everything else.
4. Makes you a more thoughtful person
It makes you give this task more thought than you’d have given before and hence improves the chances of you getting to a decision that’s most beneficial for you.
5. Gives you a chance to test drive all your ideas
When you’re thinking about the pros and cons of something, there are so many questions running through your mind which can be answered only when you experiment on it without disturbing the original idea.
6. Jogs your imagination for miles towards the destination
Since it’s already making you thoughtful, it’s only natural for your mind to wander into unchartered waves of the sea of imagination and try swimming through to the other side.
7. Can be made for any and every decision you make
A pro-con list is for everything. Absolutely everything. Because at every step of the way, you are deciding something, including reading this.
8. Helps you unclutter your mind
A pro-con list will help you eliminate all those things you don’t need in your mind when you need to concentrate on the task at hand.
9. Makes you realise that making lists isn’t really too tiresome a task
It’s actually quite fun and kind of a little game for yourself. 😀
10. Makes you ask the right questions
It will always help you to make a pro-con list because it’ll lead you to ask the right questions everytime you’re in a fix.
11. Makes you think from the enemy side of yourself
A pro-con list also makes you hear the voice of that dark side of yours, you always try to subdue you and you might be surprised that the dark voice seldom lies.