Change the Default

In my book, You Can’t Surf from the Shore, I outline the flaws in my early decision-making. Instead of being active in deciding what I wanted in life, I defaulted to whatever was easy and obvious.

I went to college because it was easier to go to college than fight my parents about my desire for another path. I worked the retail job I kept after college because I didn’t want to spend the time applying to jobs. Each choice felt less like a choice and more like I had to do it.

It wasn’t that I was lazy. Sometimes laziness was a factor but not always. It was really that I just went with the default option.

I would evaluate my options, but all contained faults. There wasn’t a perfect option to choose so I would avoid making any decision. But by not choosing one of the options that existed, I was choosing the default option.

It was almost as if I didn’t choose something, there was always an option waiting that would be applied. Because all options were flawed, the default option would be the one picked.

I had to learn how to break free from that decision-making process, or lack of a process. I had to be able to outline the options with all the pros and cons and move forward in the direction I choose, regardless of the negatives.

I had to accept that there would be consequences. There would be risk. There would be struggles and obstacles and it wouldn’t be perfect.

Doing this gave me the ability to choose my path forward. I fought through the natural inertia towards the default. This was difficult at times, but it unlocked a future where I could go after what I want.

But the knowledge I gained doesn’t stop there. This idea of following the default can be used to design systems in your life to help you improve.

Here is a quick example of how changing the default option can impact a group. In the Netherlands, organ donation is something where people must actively sign up. About 28% of the population signs up to donate their organs.

But in Belgium, the process is different. Instead of opting in, they are automatically opted in unless they opt out. Therefore, 98% of people in that country are organ donors.

The default process created the vast discrepancy in outcome. By changing the default, you can change most of the decisions from the members of the group.

How can we use this to improve? How can you make the default option the best one? Can you make it more likely to exercise than not? What if you don’t own a car and can walk to work? Wouldn’t that make it more likely to get exercise on the way to and from work?

What about nutrition? Can you have healthy options at home and not have junk food as an option? The default would be to eat healthy instead of reaching for the high calorie, low value foods.

Changing the default is nearly impossible if you don’t design a system that creates an optimal output. Hoping for the best isn’t a strategy. Instead, look at your life as a series of systems and find ways to make the default option the optimal one.