Use the 10-year horizon as a regret test
Ask: in 10 years, will I regret not doing this more than doing it?
Key takeaways
- What it is: Ask: in 10 years, will I regret not doing this more than doing it?
- Why it works: Jeff Bezos has described a similar regret minimization framework: project yourself to age 80 and ask which choice you would regret more. The mechanism is identical — vividly imagining a future self reduces temporal discounting and shifts weight from immediate discomfort to long-run values. The 10-year framing is shorter and more operationally useful than age-80 projection for most decisions.
- Evidence: Backed by observational / correlational evidence.
- Avoid: Imagining the 10-year outcome and then discounting it emotionally because it is far away — which is precisely what the exercise is designed to counter.
Why it works
Jeff Bezos has described a similar regret minimization framework: project yourself to age 80 and ask which choice you would regret more. The mechanism is identical — vividly imagining a future self reduces temporal discounting and shifts weight from immediate discomfort to long-run values. The 10-year framing is shorter and more operationally useful than age-80 projection for most decisions.
How to do it
- 1At the 10-year step, ask specifically: "Will I regret not doing this?" and "Will I regret doing this?"
- 2Articulate which regret feels larger or more likely.
- 3Distinguish between regret about outcomes ("it didn’t work") and regret about the choice given what you knew ("I shouldn’t have tried").
- 4Let the regret test break ties when the other horizons point in opposite directions.
What the evidence says
ObservationalRegret research (Gilovich, Medvec) suggests people more often regret inactions than actions over the long run, while the reverse holds in the short run — the time horizon shifts the dominant regret type. This is consistent with the 10-10-10 framework.
Honest caveat: Regret research focuses on retrospective report; prospective regret minimization has plausible validity but fewer direct studies.
- — Gilovich & Medvec (1995), "The Experience of Regret: What, When, and Why", Psychological Review
Common mistake
Imagining the 10-year outcome and then discounting it emotionally because it is far away — which is precisely what the exercise is designed to counter.
IX Coach frames the 10-year question explicitly as a regret test and prompts you to articulate which regret — action or inaction — you are more willing to live with.
Practice this with IX Coach →