“And then what?” is a helpful question to ask before making big decisions.
We’re usually aware of the immediate impacts of our decisions; that’s the easy part. The hard part is remembering that the consequences of our decisions also have consequences.
For example, opting out of travel insurance saves money immediately and means more can be spent on the holiday, but we’re unprotected from a hefty financial burden if something goes wrong on the trip.
The habit of asking, “And then what?” is part of a practice called Second-Order Thinking. It asks us to cast our minds forward and think about the long-term impacts of the decisions we make today.
Practising Second-Order Thinking by asking, “And then what?” isn’t hard, we just need to remember to use it for it to be helpful.