The Five-Year Test for Any Decision
Most bad decisions aren’t made by stupid people. They’re made by smart people standing too close to the problem. The deadline is tomorrow, the person is in front of you, the discount ends tonight, and everything in that room screams that this moment is the whole world.
It isn’t. It almost never is. The five-year test is just a way of stepping out of the room.
The question
Before any decision that gives you a knot in your stomach, ask: five years from now, which choice will I be glad I made?
Not which one feels better tonight. Not which one is easier to explain to the person at the table. Which one will the version of me in five years thank me for.
That’s it. I know it sounds too simple. Try it on something real before you decide it’s a greeting card.
Why it works
Fear and craving are both near-sighted. They operate within a radius of about a week. Push the horizon out to five years and most of them lose their voice, because they can’t picture that far. What’s left speaking is the quieter part of you that actually knows what you value.
It also exposes a lot of fake dilemmas. The hard conversation you’ve been dreading? In five years you’ll barely remember how awkward it was; you’ll only remember whether you had it. The purchase that feels urgent? In five years it’s either in a landfill or it’s not, and the money is either compounding or it’s not.
Where it changed my life
I once had an offer to take on a partner in a business I’d built alone. The money was good and the pressure to say yes was enormous. The five-year version of me, when I bothered to ask him, was very clear that he’d rather own a smaller thing outright than a bigger thing with someone whose character I had doubts about. I said no. It was the right no. The other person’s next partnership ended in court.
I didn’t always ask. The times I didn’t are the stories in my book. Every one of them.
Two warnings
First, the test isn’t an excuse to never enjoy anything. Five-year you wants you to have gone on the trip and had the dinner. He just doesn’t want you to have financed it at twenty-four percent.
Second, don’t use it on things that don’t deserve it. What to eat for lunch doesn’t need a five-year review. Save it for the decisions where you can feel yourself being pulled by the room.
Right now
There’s probably a decision you’ve been circling. Take ten seconds. Picture yourself in October five years from now, looking back on this week. Which choice does that person nod at? Then do that one, even if the room disagrees.
Launch list
Be there on day one.
One email when the book opens on Kickstarter. Nothing else. Already reading the book? Your Cheat Sheet is at wisdomdeck.com/free.
Coming soon on 
The book itself — 40 laws in ten parts, 320 pages, each ending with The Work — is funded first on Kickstarter.