How to make better choices in life?

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the next best time is today"

One of the most difficult choices one makes is whether to start today or not. For example, if i wanted to start studying. I could even study today, or next month, cuz exams are far away. But how i should take it as is, would I regret my decision later? If I started studying now, would I regret it two months later, when exams are nearing? Will i blame myself of not utilizing my time and being "stuck"? This is something you should always ask yourself, and be completely rational about it. When you're thinking if you should start playing football competitively in class 8 or not, ask yourself that will you regret your decision after two years? Think of the circumstances and understand the situation, instead of shadowing yourself with excuses like "Oh yeah i may get enough time when I'm in class 10 for these stuff, let's do something else now". Irrationality and fake hope are just enough to guide you to wrong directions, avoid taking any unreal chances.

Connect with people professionally. Read more books, understand the author's perspective. I've come across people like Napoleon Hill, James Clear and Robert Kiyosaki, who ofcourse don't know me yet they make their point very clear in their writings, which makes us familiar with their personality. And whenever you are at a peak of a decision, ask the personalities for advice. No, you don't need to know them personally to ask them, you already know their character. Imagine if x person had faced this situation in my place, how would he think and how would he solve it? Or would he? It's always good to think like influential people, but choose your advisors carefully. And by this i don't mean do exactly what they did, just take an advice from their personalities. if you do exactly what they did, it shadows you as them and you end up losing your own personality and your own thinking skills. 

Take some time for yourself, and think, what are my goals in life? The long term ones I mean. Those goals, that actually matter to me. When I'm on my deathbed, will I regret not doing something I wanted to but couldn't do for whatsoever reason. 

When you're on a decision you're pretty new to, don't tense up, don't worry much, if you do, you'll mess up. Here's one thing you can do, treat your decision as an experiment. You'll see we're always ready to go easy on something when it's just an experiment which may or may not workout. This obviously means you need to setup the experimental environment for it. Set a backup plan, incase your decision doesn't work out, you'll still manage out of it. You may be wrong, but you'll atleast be fearless, and already better than most of the people out there. 

When to quit? There are generally two reasons one is wanting to quit his goal. One,  it sucks, or two, it's hard. If it's hard, ask yourself if the work is worth it at the end of the day? If yes, continue to work on it, and if no, then quit. And if it sucks, ask yourself if you can make it not suck, or atleast suck less? Readymade paths are never straightforward, but you can create your own which will be a clear one for you. And even for that, think if those efforts you put to do so, can they result to a good output? If not, quit. If yes, put every ounce of you into it.

Again, this post relies a lot on asking yourself questions, which is basically thinking. Don't let unrealness dive into your thinking. Be rational, be real, do not think on the basis of fake scenarios or assumptions. Do not create false hope that "oh it will work somehow, i needn't worry". Whenever You're telling that "it'll work", you should be able to reason why it'll work. That's the difference between a backup plan and an assumption. In an assumption you're just telling yourself things will work, but in a backup plan you KNOW that things will work because you are fully certain about why it'll work.