Coaching practices for Decision Filter Goals
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Decision Filter Goals, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m weighing a dozen factors on the same choice I face over and over, and they all blur together
- I’ve pinned everything on a result that partly depends on the judges, the competition, plain luck
- I can never feel done deciding
- My goals are always vague things like "cut back" or "be better about it," and that fuzziness is exactly where I weasel out
- A shiny opportunity lands and I get so dazzled by the upside that I talk myself right past the one thing about it I know I’ll hate
Practices that may help
- Anti-Goals: Defining Success by What You Refuse to Accept
Anti-goals, popularised by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, are explicit statements of the outcomes, conditions, and trade-offs you refuse to accept — defined before deciding what to pursue. They complement positive goal-setting by creating a decision filter that eliminates technically "successful" outcomes that would make you miserable. The framework is a practitioner heuristic with no direct experimental study, but it applies well-supported principles from decision science and values-clarification. - Use "take the best": choose on your single most informative cue
When choosing between options, identify the most diagnostic cue and use it — stop searching for more.
Simple Heuristics: Gerd Gigerenzer’s Case for Fast and Frugal Thinking - Filter goals through the controllability test
Only set goals for actions you can directly control — not for outcomes that depend on others or luck.
Process Goals, Made Practical - Adopt satisficing instead of maximizing
Set a "good enough" threshold before you search, then stop when you hit it.
Choice Overload, Made Practical - Draw one clear, binary line
Replace "less" or "moderate" with a rule that is unambiguously on or off.
Bright-Line Rules: When "None" Beats "Some" - Use anti-goals as a decision filter before evaluating opportunities
Run every major opportunity through your anti-goals list before calculating the upside.
Anti-Goals: Defining Success by What You Refuse to Accept - Distinguish true anti-goals from solvable constraints
Some "I won’t accept" conditions are actually design problems — not genuine anti-goals — and can be solved rather than ruled out.
Anti-Goals: Defining Success by What You Refuse to Accept - Using your ranked values as a coaching north star
Return to your ranked values list every time a goal, project, or decision feels off-track.
Values Card Sort - Set a “good enough” bar before you search
Decide your criteria first, then take the first option that clears them.
Satisficing vs. Maximizing: When “Good Enough” Wins - Build your personal adaptive toolbox of domain-specific rules
The goal isn’t one universal heuristic — it’s a curated collection that matches the domains you actually navigate.
Simple Heuristics: Gerd Gigerenzer’s Case for Fast and Frugal Thinking
Related concerns
- Andrew Wilkinson Anti Goals
Anti-goals, popularised by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, are explicit statements of the outcomes, conditions, and trade-offs you refuse to accept — defined before deciding what to pursue. They complement positive goal-setting by creating a decision filter that eliminates technically "successful" outcomes that would make you miserable. The framework is a practitioner heuristic with no direct experimental study, but it applies well-supported principles from decision science and values-clarification.
- Anti Goals Defining Success By What You Refuse To Accept In A New Job
Anti-goals, popularised by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, are explicit statements of the outcomes, conditions, and trade-offs you refuse to accept — defined before deciding what to pursue. They complement positive goal-setting by creating a decision filter that eliminates technically "successful" outcomes that would make you miserable. The framework is a practitioner heuristic with no direct experimental study, but it applies well-supported principles from decision science and values-clarification.
- Anti Goals Defining Success By What You Refuse To Accept On A Budget
Anti-goals, popularised by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, are explicit statements of the outcomes, conditions, and trade-offs you refuse to accept — defined before deciding what to pursue. They complement positive goal-setting by creating a decision filter that eliminates technically "successful" outcomes that would make you miserable. The framework is a practitioner heuristic with no direct experimental study, but it applies well-supported principles from decision science and values-clarification.
- Anti Goals Defining Success By What You Refuse To Accept Under Stress
Anti-goals, popularised by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, are explicit statements of the outcomes, conditions, and trade-offs you refuse to accept — defined before deciding what to pursue. They complement positive goal-setting by creating a decision filter that eliminates technically "successful" outcomes that would make you miserable. The framework is a practitioner heuristic with no direct experimental study, but it applies well-supported principles from decision science and values-clarification.
- Anti Goals Vs Constraints
Anti-goals, popularised by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson, are explicit statements of the outcomes, conditions, and trade-offs you refuse to accept — defined before deciding what to pursue. They complement positive goal-setting by creating a decision filter that eliminates technically "successful" outcomes that would make you miserable. The framework is a practitioner heuristic with no direct experimental study, but it applies well-supported principles from decision science and values-clarification.
- Decision Criteria
When choosing between options, identify the most diagnostic cue and use it — stop searching for more.
Use "take the best": choose on your single most informative cue
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.