A researcher who has studied how people navigate life's biggest choices — analysing data from more than 600 participants asked to describe their ten most significant decisions — has outlined seven evidence-backed steps for making them well. Key findings suggest people should actively choose rather than drift into outcomes, seek advice without revealing their initial preference to avoid confirmation bias, and resist reducing complex trade-offs to a single spreadsheet score, building a narrative instead. When genuinely undecided, the research supports taking the bolder path: a separate study by economist Steven Levitt, in which over 20,000 people used a coin flip to resolve stalled decisions, found those nudged toward change reported greater happiness six months later.