10-10-10: The Tool That Saved Me From Making a Bad Decision (And Running Out of Gas)

Experts tell us, and I can concur wholeheartedly from my own experience, that when people admit to the worst financial decisions they’ve made in their lives, they often recall choices made in the grip of visceral emotions like anger, lust, anxiety and greed.

Imagine how our lives might be different if we had a couple dozen “undo” buttons to use after these decisions.

Good news: We are not slaves to our emotions. Those feelings of anger, lust, anxiety and greed fade. In fact, they can evaporate quickly. The problem is, the decision made during that heightened time of emotion is not quite so fleeting. Maybe that’s why our grandparents’ folk wisdom — that we should sleep on it — is pretty sound. But sleep isn’t enough. We need a strategy. We need to know we have a tool handy at all times that we can pull out and that it will work quickly and effectively when these kinds of situations arise.

One such tool is the brainchild of Suzy Welch, author and business writer for publications like Bloomberg Businessweek. Welch calls it 10-10-10. She describes this life tool in her book “10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea.” To use 10-10-10, we learn to think about our decisions in light of these three different time frames:

How will I feel about it 10 minutes from now?

How about 10 months from now?

How about 10 years from now?

The three timeframes provide an elegant way of forcing us to get some distance on our decisions. I’ve taken this 10-10-10 rule to heart, applying it to my life around the clock.

First, I didn’t realize just how many decisions I make in a day! For decisions of any significance, I’ve found this to be an amazing way to gain quick perspective on everything from what to eat for lunch to whether or not to move forward with the remodel. I even used it last evening as I noticed the car’s fuel gauge on empty with only a range of 26 miles remaining — while I was on my way to a meeting about 10 miles from home. Yikes. My dilemma was that stopping for gas would likely make me late for the meeting. But running out of gas was a definite possibility, given the 26 miles was only an estimate.

If I stop to get gas …

Q: How will I feel 10 minutes from now?

A: Relieved and ready to offer my apologies if I’m a few minutes late.

Q: How will I feel 10 months from now?

A: I will have cleared the nondescript event from my mind.

Q: How will I feel 10 years from now?

A: What stop for gas?! When? I won’t even remember.

If I don’t stop and try to make it with the gas remaining …

Q: How will I feel 10 minutes from now?

A: Worried, slightly anxious, nervous and eventually angry because I had to wait an hour for AAA to rescue me with a gallon of gas.

Q: How will I feel 10 months from now?

A: Irritated that I had to learn an easy lesson the hard way.

Q: How will I feel 10 years from now?

A: Grrrr, when I recall how stupid I was to set out with so little fuel.

That may be an even more dramatic accounting than what actually happened in my mind, but I did use the 10-10-10 tool to make my decision. I stopped for gas. I arrived on time to the meeting, grateful, unemotional and with a clear head.

Over the past few weeks, I can point to many decisions made that were highly influenced by this 10-10-10 exercise. The clear perspective it offers is incredible. And isn’t that what we really want when making decisions — a clear, reasoned view of the pros and cons that allow us to step back, take a deep breath and make the right choice?