Hit Me With Your Best Decision

I have never met anyone who woke up thinking, Today is the day I will make a poorly thought-through decision that I will later regret. And yet, decisions — even the small ones — trip us up all the time. We overthink, underthink, avoid, delay, or charge ahead without really knowing what we are reacting to. The truth is, most of us are not bad at thinking. We are just not great at clear thinking.

That is exactly what makes Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish such an insightful read. Parrish reminds us that the goal of decision-making is not simply to collect information, but to collect relevant information. There is a difference. And it starts with the questions we ask.

Bad questions lead to noise. Good questions clarify. Great questions challenge. Coaching, at its best, is the art of asking those great questions — the ones that unearth the assumptions we did not know we were making and shine a light on the facts we actually need. It is not about giving advice or playing therapist-lite. It is about creating the kind of thinking space where better decisions happen.

Let us be honest. Most of us do not need more information. We need better filters.

Coaching as a Thinking Partner (Without the Fluffy Bits)

You know that person who brings three tabs, two spreadsheets, and a panic in their voice to a conversation about which new hobby to take up? Yes. That. Multiply it by the high-stakes moments in work and life, and you get a sense of how easy it is to get lost in the weeds.

Coaching helps you pause. It helps you think about how you are thinking. It offers a structure — not a straitjacket — that lets you explore your options while staying connected to what actually matters to you.

Rather than playing “what if” until your brain ties itself in a knot, coaching supports you to ask:

• What am I really trying to achieve?

• What information actually matters here?

• What assumptions am I making without realising it?

• What would ‘better’ look like — not perfect, just better?

It is structured thinking, not scripted. And it works.

Taking Control Without Pretending to Have It All Figured Out

Better decision-making is not about pretending to have certainty. It is about being deliberate. Curious. Informed. It is about realising that good decisions are not made in a vacuum — they are made by people who know how to ask the right questions, weigh the right information, and understand the why and how behind the data, not just the “what”.

Imagine what would be possible if you were just a little bit better at deciding. Not perfect. Just a little sharper. A little more focused. A little more confident that the decision you are making is yours — not someone else’s noise, not your worst-case-scenario brain spiral, and not the product of yet another poorly designed listicle.

Coaching helps you build that muscle. The one that turns “I do not know what to do” into “I know what matters, and I am ready to act.”

The Bigger Picture Without the Blurry Bits

When you work with a coach, you are not being led to an answer. You are being supported to think — and to think well. That means zooming out to see a range of perspectives, and zooming in to spot the data points that actually mean something. It means not only identifying what you could do, but understanding what you should do, and why.

So yes, you can continue agonising over every decision, collecting tabs like trophies and calling it research. Or, you can choose to get clearer. Sharper. Stronger in your thinking. Coaching does not make the decision for you — it makes you better at making decisions.

Hit Mw

And that, frankly, is far more useful than another list of pros and cons that just confirms what you already wanted to believe.