Concept
10/10/10
10/10/10 is Suzy Welch's question, adopted by the Heaths: how will I feel about this choice in ten minutes, ten months and ten years? It separates the emotion of the moment from the consequences that will outlast it.
Short-term emotion is the villain people think they have handled by sleeping on a decision, but sleeping lets the same feeling settle into a story. 10/10/10 gets distance rather than time. The ten-minute answer is the emotion: dread, thrill, resentment. The ten-month answer is usually where the real decision lives, because the feeling has faded and the consequences are visible. The ten-year answer tells you whether the decision matters at all; most agonised-over choices look small at that range, and a few look far larger than the emotion suggested.
A real-life example
A woman offered a management role with a team she did not choose feels dread at ten minutes. At ten months she has either learned to manage, which she has wanted for years, or learned it is not for her. At ten years only whether she ever learned to manage will register.
How to use it
- 1Write the three answers on paper; the ten-month one is usually the decision.
- 2Notice when the ten-minute feeling is doing all the voting.