The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

by Alex Korb

Deciding Helps Make More Decisions As I neared the end of college, I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to do with my life. This indecisiveness became insidious—soon I was having trouble deciding what I wanted to do for the summer, and then simply what I wanted to do that weekend. When you’re stalled and paralyzed, things feel out of your control. But the good news is that you don’t have to start with the big decisions. You can start small. Choose what to have for lunch, or what television show to watch. Research shows that decisiveness in one part of your life can improve your decisiveness in other parts of your life.22 Pick one thing, go with it, and don’t question it. When you exercise a muscle, it gets stronger, and the exercise makes it easier to work out the next time. Similarly, every time you make a decision instead of procrastinating, worrying, or acting impulsively, you strengthen your decision-making circuit for the future. Of course, if you run five miles, your muscles become fatigued, and a sixth mile is going to feel a lot harder than the first. The same with decisions—if you have to make a lot in a row, the decision-making circuit gets fatigued and your brain falls back into indecisiveness or impulsivity. But that’s okay. Just like with exercise, you’re training your brain for the future, and the next time you need to make a decision, that sixth mile will feel easier—you’ll have set the stage for an upward spiral.