How to make the “right” decision using Holographic Thinking

I recently went to a leadership training and came across an interesting take on decision-making called Holographic Thinking, which opened my mind to a new perspective I wanted to share with you. 

If you know me a tiny bit, you know that I am a huge fan of the pros and cons list when making a decision. I even take it to a whole different level, with levels of satisfaction for each item on the list, and assign a percentage of how important that item is to me. I make a scientific formula out of it. Yup, that’s me. I am a nerd. 

So… if you are a bit like me and like to be objective and rational when making a decision, you know that sometimes your heart is not into that logical decision even if it makes perfect sense. But then again, I like to inject logic into it so that I can justify it to myself again and again, for days to come and sometimes months and years to come. 

Knowing a thing or two about human psychology, I know that we make decisions by our hearts (emotions) and then justify them by logic. And if you’ve made purely emotional decisions in the past, you know as well as I do that they could lead to very interesting outcomes of their own. Some might refer to them as disastrous. 

And so I try to find the balance between logic and emotion. Which one should win? 

Recently, I was in a dilemma where I had two choose between one of two things. I confided with a friend, who asked me to flip a coin between the two decisions and see how I felt when I found out the result. Am I happy? Relaxed? Satisfied? Or not. 

That’s the gut feeling. My gut, what is my intuition telling me?

And that gut feeling is very temporary, it happens at the moment, which is a little bit different than emotion or logic. 

The gut feeling is purely in the present. Logic and emotion could be in the past, present, or future. 

Which brings me to why I am here in the first place. When I got introduced to Holographic Thinking, all of this made sense. 

Holographic Thinking? I know it sounds complicated, but it’s not. 

The concept of Holographic thinking is to have a comprehensive outlook on what it is you’re deciding and use your logic, emotion, and gut to be in tune with that decision.

1. What does your analytical mind tell you about it? 
2. How do you feel about it? How might others feel about it?
3. What does your gut or intuition tell you? Flip that coin. 

It doesn’t matter if your thoughts started with logic, emotion, or intuition, so as long as you “check in” with the other two as well.

When the decision is aligned with all three aspects of Holographic Thinking, it’s going to be a very easy decision to make. 

And if not, we go back and forth, thinking and rethinking, agonizing on what decision to make, and even if it’s the right one, sometimes leading to an emotional torture rollercoaster. 

How do you usually make decisions?