Use The Ulysses Rule to Make Better Decisions in Life

#Decide Beforehand.

In Greek mythology one of the most epic stories is ‘The Odyssey’ written by Homer. Ulysses, a famed warrior, is returning home from the Trojan War with his brave band of warriors. He has heard stories about The Sirens, ugly monsters in the guise of beautiful women who have amazing voices. The Sirens live on an island that Ulysses and his crew will pass by on their journey.

As per the stories nobody has ever been able to escape their sweet melodies. Their sweet songs lure sailors to steer their ship towards the rocky shores causing the ship to sink. Ulysses gives his sailors beeswax to put in their ears so that they cannot listen to their melodies and avoid the deadly fate that has fallen on so many sailors who fell prey to their magic sounds.

But he wants to listen to the amazing voices without risking death. So he instructs his men to tie him to the mast with ropes. When they approach the island, he listens to the wonderful melodies and is driven nearly mad with desire to go near these beautiful voices.

He pleads with his men to release him and let me go. But since his men have beeswax in their ears they can’t listen to his pleadings. They cross the island safely and then Ulysses is lowered from the mast. In this way, our hero has listened to the siren song without risking his and his men’s lives.

The siren song has now become a metaphor for all the things that attract us but can cause us harm. You can include things like the internet, television, social media or any other habit that keeps you addicted and wanting from more. Just like the siren songs, they lure us with their sweet melodies and cause us to forget our more meaningful goals in life.

We hear siren songs everywhere, whether it is when we buy the chocolate chip cookies while buying groceries or when thinking about buying that shiny new gadget that has just been launched. In this modern world, temptations are difficult to fend off, simply because they are too many of them.

Want to reduce your weight but there is a tub of ice cream in the fridge? Have to write an article but you end up surfing the net in the name of research? There are endless ways in which these siren songs trap us into doing things we know are not good for us but end up still doing them.

In fact, there is a term for this. It is called the Knowing-Doing Gap. We know what is to be done or not done but cannot do it as we have become slaves to our temptations and bad habits.

Want to know what is the way out? There is a simple rule for helping you make better life decisions. You need to create a smart algorithm or rule-based system that helps you automate your decision well before you face the temptation.

I call this “The Ulysses Rule”.

Just like Ulysses decide on your course of action much before you hear the siren songs of your addiction. If you know that you end up hoarding a lot of calories dense stuff when you go grocery shopping, you can avoid it by getting somebody else to buy your groceries.

You can block popular internet sites using tools like RescueTime for finishing off your important work before you open your favourite social media site. Or ask your spouse to change the wifi password and tell them to give it to you only when you show that the work has been completed.

Deciding beforehand can help you also avoid the emotional stress you go through thinking about the temptation. Since the decision has already been made you have no choice but to follow it through.

Here are the components of how to create a smart algorithm or rule that helps you automate decisions.

Lock Yourself Up

The rule should be able to lock you into making the right decision even when you are feeling tempted to do otherwise.

Let us understand this with an example. Suppose you are a salaried person and want to save money. One way is to ensure you set up a fixed amount, say 10% of your salary to be directly deducted from your account every month on a specific date.

Those ways you have locked yourself up into a making a decision.

Design your environment

I only buy white coloured formal shirts. That way I have no other choice but white to wear to the office. It helps me reduce the time it takes to decide what clothes to wear for work. I use amazon subscribe and save for groceries.

It saves money and makes me avoid making emotional last-minute purchases at stores. No more chocolates and ice creams. I don’t buy sugar, so don’t have any choice but to go without sugar in my tea or coffee.

You can design your environment to narrow your choices. You are removed from the need to think too much of the temptations since that does not exist by design.

Have an external audit

One of the best ways to avoid temptation is to have an external audit. When I have to focus on some important work, I tell my wife about it and tell her to ask me if I have finished it by that time. My wife is perfectly suited for this job since she can follow-up better than a loan collection agent. It keeps me on my toes and helps me finish my important tasks. If I end up relaxing longer than necessary I get a subtle reminder that I have a job pending in my tray. Having somebody breathing down your neck may not be something for everybody taste but it sure gets the job done.

Create a punishment

There is nothing more motivating than the knowledge that you may be punished acting upon your temptation. You can design simple punishments like giving some fixed amount of money to a friend or family member for failing to go to the gym.

Or you could use sites like Stickk to put your money on the line for building great habits. The premise is simple, if you fail in your commitment, you lose a pre-defined sum of money to another person.

Even better is if you hate a political organisation or movement, you can create a system that donates money to that organisation if you don’t achieve your goal. It can be managed by a third party to make sure you do end up paying in case you don’t achieve the desired goal.

The story of Ulysses has a good ending because he thought through his course of action before it happened. It helped him create a system that let him avoid the negative effect of the temptation while enjoying the positive effect.

You too can create such a system that avoids the many temptations of life and help you make better decisions.