Dennis Prager Show - Timeless Wisdom - Happiness Hour: Make Up Your Mind
Aired: 2026-02-20
Duration: 40:10


=== If There Is No God (01:21) ===

[00:00:00]  Your dog and a stranger are drowning.
[00:00:02]  You can only save one.
[00:00:04]  Who do you choose?
[00:00:04]  Dennis Prager says your answer reveals everything about how you define right and wrong.
[00:00:09]  In his new book, If There Is No God, Prager exposes the danger of emotion-based morality and why, without objective truth, society descends into chaos.
[00:00:19]  This isn't a religious book, it's a rational case for moral clarity in a confused age.
[00:00:25]  If There Is No God from Dennis Prager.
[00:00:27]  Order now at PragerStore.com.
[00:00:30]  Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:00:34]  Here are thousands of hours of Dennis' lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
[00:00:38]  And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.
[00:01:19]  Every week at this time, no matter what.

=== Happy Hour (02:14) ===

[00:01:22]  Hey, yes, it yes, it is.
[00:01:25]  Oh, yes, oh, yes, oh, yes, it is.
[00:01:29]  It's the happiness hour.
[00:01:30]  We talk about happiness every week at this time because it is a moral obligation to be as happy as possible.
[00:01:39]  It's the happy, happy, happy, happy hour.
[00:01:42]  It really is.
[00:01:44]  Why would you think I would choose one topic?
[00:01:46]  It's the only one of all the things I talk about that I'm obligated to talk about.
[00:01:52]  I have an ultimate issues hour every week where I talk about some great issue of life, but there are different ones each week.
[00:01:58]  But this is happiness every week.
[00:02:01]  Happy people make the world better.
[00:02:03]  The unhappy tend to make the world worse.
[00:02:06]  I'm sorry, unhappy ones.
[00:02:08]  I'm sorry.
[00:02:09]  The unhappy walk around thinking that the happy don't have any problems.
[00:02:14]  It's a common belief among the unhappy that only they have the issues.
[00:02:19]  Now, there are, of course, there are exceptions to every rule, including this one, but that's why we owe it to our children, our spouses, our parents, our friends.
[00:02:32]  God, I was on the plane yesterday.
[00:02:36]  The guy next to me was one of these misanthropes.
[00:02:40]  I mean, he didn't do anything cruel, but I remember just saying, hey, good morning.
[00:02:48]  And that was the response.
[00:02:51]  And he's spoke and wasn't he was not foreign-born.
[00:02:55]  And I'm telling you, your trip, especially cross-country, your trip is different if you sit next to an unhappy, an obviously unhappy person.
[00:03:05]  It is.
[00:03:06]  I'm not asking for some manic to sit next to me and giggle the entire time.
[00:03:12]  That's horrific.
[00:03:15]  But the opposite of unhappy is not manic, is balanced and have an upbeat disposition in life.
[00:03:24]  A friend of mine told me, you'll like this, Alan.
[00:03:27]  It was the WAS.
[00:03:30]  And he told me that he was telling his son, how old?
[00:03:34]  How old is the younger one?

=== Choosing Between Houses (15:38) ===

[00:03:36]  About 11?
[00:03:39]  So I had, he says, younger son told him that he was unhappy I was moving from the neighborhood.
[00:03:49]  And he said, I really, I like Dennis because he is fun to be with.
[00:03:57]  And he doesn't listen to the show.
[00:04:00]  11-year-old, 11-year-old likes to be with an upbeat adult.
[00:04:04]  And I don't clown with him.
[00:04:06]  I'm not one of those adults who entertains children.
[00:04:09]  He just likes that temperament.
[00:04:11]  We all like it.
[00:04:11]  It's just the way it is.
[00:04:15]  But in the 60s, which ushered in the age of stupidity, the idea came that if you don't feel it, then you shouldn't act it, right?
[00:04:24]  Typically foolish idea of that period.
[00:04:26]  You don't feel happy, folks.
[00:04:28]  You should act happy anyway for the sake of everything.
[00:04:30]  It's like saying, I don't feel clean.
[00:04:32]  Well, you still take a shower, whether you feel clean or not.
[00:04:36]  And anyway, if you act happy, you'll be happier anyway.
[00:04:39]  Now to today's topic.
[00:04:42]  A lot of people fear making decisions.
[00:04:48]  Talk to real estate agents.
[00:04:50]  Real estate agents and their work fascinate me.
[00:04:54]  Fascinates me.
[00:04:56]  I love homes.
[00:04:58]  I find I love walking into people's homes.
[00:05:02]  I love the very real estate, it is very real.
[00:05:06]  Real estate work is real.
[00:05:07]  People are real.
[00:05:08]  Because when it comes to your home and to money, people are not acting.
[00:05:15]  And I have bought more homes than I want to think about.
[00:05:19]  Not at the same time.
[00:05:20]  I wish I could.
[00:05:21]  Then it would be great.
[00:05:22]  But life doesn't always come the way you think it will come.
[00:05:26]  And I bought more homes than I expected successively.
[00:05:31]  I'm not complaining.
[00:05:32]  I'm just stating a fact.
[00:05:34]  So I am somewhat of an expert on the psychology and a lot of other aspects of real estate.
[00:05:41]  I mean, certainly not.
[00:05:42]  I don't know what a real estate broker knows.
[00:05:44]  But in other words, I know something about the process of selling and the process of buying.
[00:05:49]  And there are people who, I am the opposite of this person.
[00:05:54]  There are people who can't make up their mind on a house.
[00:05:59]  Just can't.
[00:06:00]  I was talking to a broker recently about a guy who was debating between two houses.
[00:06:06]  And I told this guy, I said, How long has this guy been debating?
[00:06:09]  He said, six months.
[00:06:10]  I said, forget it.
[00:06:11]  You are wasting your time with this man.
[00:06:15]  This man will not decide for so long it will be, it'll drive you nuts.
[00:06:22]  And though he was a broker with a lot of experience, he didn't believe me.
[00:06:26]  He just disagreed with me.
[00:06:28]  And sure enough, it turns out that this guy continues to be undecided.
[00:06:33]  This notion of indecision because of a big decision, and it is a big decision buying a house.
[00:06:40]  Nobody knows better than I.
[00:06:42]  It's a big decision.
[00:06:43]  It is a big in every way.
[00:06:45]  Where you live is important.
[00:06:46]  The type of home you have is important.
[00:06:48]  And of course, monetarily, it's extremely important.
[00:06:51]  Oh, I don't understate the importance of buying a house, but I do wish to make the point, and this is the point of this happiness hour.
[00:07:02]  A lot of people are plagued by fear of making a decision.
[00:07:10]  There are people who labor more over what dessert to get than I have over on occasion what home to get.
[00:07:19]  I like the home.
[00:07:20]  I like the place.
[00:07:21]  I like the price.
[00:07:22]  Sign me up.
[00:07:23]  I don't have a life to spend looking as much as I enjoy looking at different homes.
[00:07:27]  If I found a good one, then I'm happy.
[00:07:33]  What is the worst thing that could happen?
[00:07:35]  This I did an hour on, Alan, a long time ago.
[00:07:38]  Everyone should always ask themselves, what's the worst that could happen?
[00:07:42]  So the worst that could happen with regard to buying a house that you later regret is you later regret you bought that house.
[00:07:49]  It doesn't work out.
[00:07:50]  Fine.
[00:07:51]  You can't, but it can't be that bad.
[00:07:55]  It can't be that bad because you bought it.
[00:07:59]  It must have enticed you for a whole host of reasons.
[00:08:05]  And people spend their lives, and I feel bad for the spouse.
[00:08:10]  Now, if your spouse is as tentative as you are, then you're blessed.
[00:08:14]  That's fine, and it doesn't annoy your spouse.
[00:08:17]  But I would think, and I hate to put this burden on some of you, but I would think that women would like to be married to a man who makes a decision.
[00:08:28]  Isn't that part of what renders a man masculine?
[00:08:31]  I am making a decision.
[00:08:33]  Doesn't mean you make it against your wife's will, but if she's looking to you for a leadership in that arena, then damn it, lead.
[00:08:44]  I like that house.
[00:08:45]  We're taking it.
[00:08:46]  Well, I don't know, but this one has this.
[00:08:49]  This one has an extra bathroom, but this one has another studio.
[00:08:53]  And this one has, for California, at least, this one has a little pool.
[00:08:57]  This one has a jacuzzi.
[00:08:59]  This one doesn't have either, but it has more tulips.
[00:09:02]  This one has a little more flatland in the back.
[00:09:04]  This one has a hilly background.
[00:09:06]  Of course, that's the way.
[00:09:08]  Unless you have unlimited funds, you are going to pay.
[00:09:10]  You are going to figure out what you give up and what you have.
[00:09:13]  That's the way of, that's all of life.
[00:09:17]  No matter what you get, it comes with some price.
[00:09:21]  Anything you get.
[00:09:22]  And if you get one with everything you want, then the upkeep will be a fortune.
[00:09:28]  And you probably don't have the money for everything you want.
[00:09:35]  And it doesn't only apply to real estate.
[00:09:37]  I'm using the real estate example.
[00:09:39]  It doesn't only apply to real estate.
[00:09:43]  It applies to getting married.
[00:09:45]  Well, you know, she has this and not this, but she has that one and this, and he has this, but not that and that and but not this.
[00:09:53]  And, you know, what is it that most, what is it that the indecisive want?
[00:09:59]  Absolute certitude.
[00:10:01]  Where in life is absolute certitude available?
[00:10:06]  Where?
[00:10:08]  1-8 Prager776.
[00:10:11]  Are you plagued?
[00:10:13]  And I know wonderful people.
[00:10:14]  This is not a character flaw.
[00:10:16]  This is an emotional problem, psychological one.
[00:10:20]  Are you someone plagued by the inability to make a decision?
[00:10:27]  If you are, and I say this very openly, I feel bad for you.
[00:10:32]  I have seen people suffer.
[00:10:34]  This guy whom I never met debating between house A and house B.
[00:10:38]  I mean, I can't believe he's happy.
[00:10:42]  I don't know, well, this, but I don't know that, and I don't know, and I don't know, and I don't know.
[00:10:48]  No certitude is available.
[00:10:51]  You sit down, you make a decision, and you move on with life.
[00:10:54]  That is the best way in which to do these things.
[00:10:58]  Make a decision.
[00:11:00]  I'm sure that people do this with cars.
[00:11:04]  Car dealers may you may have, if you're a real estate agent and you have examples of this, I'd love to hear from you.
[00:11:10]  If you're married to someone plagued with the inability to make a decision, I'd like to hear from you.
[00:11:15]  And I think I can help you, at least I can help your mind, not your psyche, adjust to making decisions.
[00:11:23]  Because I want to know what you fear, because it's all based on fear.
[00:11:28]  What do you fear when it comes to making a decision?
[00:11:31]  1-8 Prager776, the happiness hour on the Dennis Prager Show.
[00:11:36]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:11:42]  Here's something most people don't know.
[00:11:43]  When Warren Buffett was just 13 years old, he didn't put his money into a savings account.
[00:11:48]  While other kids were earning next to nothing at local banks, Buffett put $114 into a little-known investment.
[00:11:55]  Today, that $114 would be worth over $15 million.
[00:12:00]  And it wasn't a risky trade.
[00:12:02]  It wasn't even insider knowledge.
[00:12:04]  It was an account that's been around since 1888.
[00:12:07]  And over the last 25 years, it's averaged 29% a year.
[00:12:12]  That's what happens when your money is allowed to compound.
[00:12:14]  Compare that to today's savings accounts, paying less than half a percent, while inflation quietly eats away at your buying power.
[00:12:22]  Buffett understood early.
[00:12:23]  Banks are great businesses, just not for savers.
[00:12:26]  If you'd like to see what some investors call the 29% account, go now to secretaccount29.com.
[00:12:34]  That's secret account, the numbers29.com.
[00:12:38]  SecretAccount29.com.
[00:12:44]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:12:52]  Happy music on the happiness hour.
[00:12:54]  Hi, everyone.
[00:12:55]  Dennis Prager here.
[00:12:57]  I talk about happiness every week at this hour.
[00:13:02]  I think the only exception I ever made was the week of 9-11.
[00:13:05]  And I'm not sure I did then, but I think I did.
[00:13:09]  Welcome back.
[00:13:10]  I'm talking to you about a problem that afflicts, I wonder what percentage, I'd love to know what percentage of people, and I'd like to help you with this, because you can't be happy if you have this problem.
[00:13:21]  And that is the inability to make decisions.
[00:13:25]  I was using the real estate issue.
[00:13:27]  You could apply it to anything.
[00:13:28]  You know, people, I don't know, well, this is my favorite about the real estate issue.
[00:13:33]  When people say, well, I don't know, is this a good time to buy?
[00:13:37]  What does that mean?
[00:13:39]  You know, you know, when is a good time to buy?
[00:13:43]  You have to live life.
[00:13:44]  You can't base it on, well, when will they still go down further?
[00:13:47]  You don't know that.
[00:13:48]  I have lived through more real estate cycles than I can account.
[00:13:54]  I don't know.
[00:13:55]  Is this the time?
[00:13:56]  It'll be better next year.
[00:13:58]  I'll wait till rates change.
[00:13:59]  Well, rates may go up.
[00:14:00]  In the meantime, you have to live.
[00:14:02]  You may have a heart attack in the meantime.
[00:14:07]  So, anyway, that's just the reality.
[00:14:09]  It could be on choosing a spouse.
[00:14:11]  It could be on a job.
[00:14:12]  It could be anything.
[00:14:15]  Decisions have to be made.
[00:14:18]  All right, let's go to, I want to find out what stops you.
[00:14:22]  What goes on in your mind in the fear of making a decision?
[00:14:26]  All righty, we begin in Dallas with Rob.
[00:14:29]  Hello, Rob.
[00:14:29]  Dennis Prager, thanks for calling.
[00:14:32]  Hey, Dennis, pleasure to talk to you.
[00:14:34]  Thank you.
[00:14:35]  Hey, there.
[00:14:37]  I'm such an indecisive person on so many levels, but even to the point that I can't even decide what to say to you right now.
[00:14:46]  But the point being that's precious.
[00:14:50]  Even the little things in daily life, like I find myself getting caught up, you know, should I put my microwave, put my coffee in the microwave to get it heated up before I turn on my computer?
[00:15:01]  Because which one's going to take longer for me to do?
[00:15:04]  And one could be working while the other one's not.
[00:15:06]  I mean, just even the littlest things.
[00:15:08]  Oh, wow.
[00:15:09]  Yeah, so sometimes I find myself paralyzed by it.
[00:15:13]  Yes, exactly.
[00:15:14]  It's paralyzing.
[00:15:16]  I assume you're not married.
[00:15:17]  Oh, I am married.
[00:15:19]  How does that mean?
[00:15:20]  I am married.
[00:15:21]  And it doesn't, I mean, it doesn't keep me from living a good life or anything like that or a productive.
[00:15:26]  Does it affect your wife?
[00:15:32]  Maybe in some respect, but I mean, of course, she's a very understanding person, but I don't know if, you know, we've talked about it before, and I don't know if it's some kind of form of ADD or what it is.
[00:15:48]  Well, you know, these initials have really caused us to think in psychopathological terms when the issue may well be in your mind.
[00:15:57]  It may not just be a some ADD is where there is a block, physiological block.
[00:16:05]  There may not be.
[00:16:06]  Rob, it may be.
[00:16:07]  I want you to analyze, if not for me, for yourself.
[00:16:10]  I want you to analyze.
[00:16:12]  There are two things I want you to do.
[00:16:13]  Analyze what you fear, because it has to be driven by fear.
[00:16:18]  Something will happen if I make the wrong decision.
[00:16:23]  That has to be a driving element.
[00:16:25]  Is that fair to say?
[00:16:26]  I think that's probably correct.
[00:16:28]  Okay, number two, I want you to start timing yourself on all these little decisions of your daily life and say, no matter what, I'm coming to a decision within 30 seconds.
[00:16:41]  Right.
[00:16:42]  Just be behavioral.
[00:16:44]  And then I want you to then realize that even if you made the wrong decision, the price paid is not terribly significant.
[00:16:52]  Or there may not even be a wrong decision.
[00:16:56]  Correct.
[00:16:57]  And in most cases in my daily life, there probably isn't a wrong decision, but I'm getting hung up on the...
[00:17:02]  That's right.
[00:17:03]  So I need you.
[00:17:04]  I am a behaviorist.
[00:17:06]  I believe that forget your feelings, act with your mind.
[00:17:11]  Mind says, make a decision.
[00:17:14]  I am going to do it.
[00:17:15]  I am going to do mind over matter.
[00:17:17]  And I want you to do it for the next week and send me an email.
[00:17:20]  I'm very serious.
[00:17:20]  I'd be very interested in knowing what would happen with Rob.
[00:17:25]  And obviously, for those of you who were plagued, and obviously a lot of you were plagued, or I wouldn't have raised this as an issue.
[00:17:32]  You can make decisions.
[00:17:34]  Force yourself to make decisions within 30 seconds and find out what happens.
[00:17:39]  Is life worse?
[00:17:40]  Is life better?
[00:17:41]  Is life the same?
[00:17:44]  Okay, let's go to Lisa in Phoenix.
[00:17:48]  Thank you, Rob.
[00:17:49]  Lisa Phoenix, Dennis Prager.
[00:17:50]  Hi.
[00:17:51]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:17:51]  I've been waiting so long for you to ask a question like this because I really have a difficult time making decisions in general.
[00:17:59]  But as of late, we have this big issue and it's just pressing on me where I can't sleep at night and it's keeping me up at night.
[00:18:07]  And my husband is very black and white.
[00:18:10]  He thinks I'm ridiculous and he thinks I worry too much.
[00:18:14]  But it's basically my seven-year-old son.
[00:18:16]  He's in a parochial school.
[00:18:19]  He's in first grade going into second grade.
[00:18:21]  And academically, the school's okay.
[00:18:24]  He's getting some of the values that we like.
[00:18:27]  However, he is a gifted child who's a little quirky and doesn't seem to quite fit in socially.
[00:18:35]  And they happen to have this amazing gifted program in the public schools, which is kind of like him.
[00:18:42]  It's geared towards kids like him that are a little quirky, but need more academic stimulation and a Socratic setting and that sort of thing.
[00:18:50]  And I've been going back and forth because school here starts in less than a month.
[00:18:54]  And he's enrolled in both places, and I don't know where to put him.
[00:18:58]  Okay, first, let me tell you that as so often in life, both choices are good.
[00:19:06]  You are not choosing between death and life here.
[00:19:09]  You are choosing between one wonderful form of schooling and another wonderful form of schooling.

=== Both Choices Are Good (14:01) ===

[00:19:14]  So you shouldn't lose any sleep.
[00:19:17]  But I feel like if I make the wrong decision, it's a good thing.
[00:19:20]  Then you'll change.
[00:19:21]  If you make the wrong decision, then you'll go back to the other school.
[00:19:24]  Kids switch schools all the time.
[00:19:26]  It doesn't matter.
[00:19:27]  So that's why I have raised this.
[00:19:30]  Always ask, what's the worst that could happen?
[00:19:33]  It's not as if, you know, it's either school here or there's this terrific school for seven-year-olds in Tokyo, and I won't see my seven-year-old for a year.
[00:19:43]  This is between the good parochial school and a special public school for gifted kids.
[00:19:49]  There, the answer lies in your value system.
[00:19:54]  And for me, great academics is of no interest.
[00:19:57]  Zero.
[00:19:59]  So, therefore, for me, it would be a non-issue.
[00:20:01]  I would send them to the parochial school.
[00:20:04]  But I'm not even urging you to.
[00:20:05]  I'm saying because I'm clear in my values, I know what decision I would make, especially since I don't want my child to walk around thinking he's gifted.
[00:20:14]  Dennis, do you remember you had that woman?
[00:20:17]  What's her last name was Dweck, and she had that book, The Mindset.
[00:20:22]  It talked about how you shouldn't praise your children all the time.
[00:20:25]  And I got the book and I read it.
[00:20:26]  Right.
[00:20:27]  And I figured that would help me make my decision.
[00:20:29]  And it's not that we want him to think he's gifted.
[00:20:32]  That's certainly not it.
[00:20:33]  And of course, we want him to get the values because that's what we believe in.
[00:20:38]  And I think that's paramount.
[00:20:40]  But if he's not happy socially and he's being picked on and made fun of.
[00:20:46]  That's right.
[00:20:46]  You're right.
[00:20:47]  If that's the inevitable, on the other hand, isolating him from the normal, so to speak, may not be a great decision either.
[00:20:53]  Maybe he needs to learn to live with the normal.
[00:20:55]  Back in a moment.
[00:20:57]  Hi, everybody.
[00:20:58]  Welcome back.
[00:20:58]  This is the Dennis Prager Show, The Happiness Hour.
[00:21:02]  An hour every week at this time, second hour on Friday, devoted to the subject of happiness.
[00:21:11]  And today it is about the inability to make decisions.
[00:21:15]  People fear making a decision.
[00:21:19]  Who to marry, what house to buy on big ones?
[00:21:22]  You just heard what school will I send my kid to.
[00:21:25]  This poor, I mean it, this poor woman can't sleep at night.
[00:21:29]  And the irony is she has two good choices.
[00:21:33]  It's not like, well, this one may give my child malaria, and this one may give my child diphtheria.
[00:21:42]  It's not the presidential decision of the troops at Iraq.
[00:21:49]  And we get paralyzed.
[00:21:51]  I was thinking of this because of being involved in a real estate recently, and a man that I never met in my life.
[00:22:00]  I don't know who he is, but who was debating between two houses for six months and will debate another six months.
[00:22:08]  And they will both be gone.
[00:22:11]  That is what is going to happen.
[00:22:16]  See, again, this is the battle between the mind and the brain.
[00:22:23]  Your mind has to direct you.
[00:22:26]  If your mind governed, you can be happy.
[00:22:30]  The mind, the mind, the mind, thinking rationally and not allowing fears to overwhelm you and so on.
[00:22:38]  What is the worst thing that could happen if you make a bad choice?
[00:22:43]  Now, there are times where the consequences are extraordinary, I agree, but not in a house purchase.
[00:22:50]  It's pretty rare that you can't go back on a decision, or going back on it is really, really traumatic.
[00:22:59]  Okay, let's go to all the sorts of examples that people can give.
[00:23:05]  And I hope that, was it Rob in Dallas?
[00:23:07]  I hope he does contact me.
[00:23:08]  I just told him, I want you to make decisions within 30 seconds for the next week.
[00:23:13]  Whatever it is, what you're going to order in a restaurant, anything you want.
[00:23:18]  I've seen people pour over restaurant menus as if they were choosing which form of execution they should have.
[00:23:24]  Will it be by a chair, the electric chair?
[00:23:27]  Will I be shot?
[00:23:32]  Cracks me up.
[00:23:34]  Phoenix, Arizona, Steve.
[00:23:36]  Hello, Steve.
[00:23:36]  Dennis Prager.
[00:23:37]  Hey, Dennis, good talking to you again.
[00:23:39]  Thank you.
[00:23:40]  Hey, first of all, I'm a golf instructor, and anybody that's been in golf can tell you that a lot of what happens in golf mimics real-life situations.
[00:23:50]  Right.
[00:23:51]  And one of the common themes that you run into all the time with, especially with my students, is this theme called paralysis by analysis.
[00:23:59]  And it's exactly what you're talking about.
[00:24:01]  They get so many things caught up in their mind that they begin to fear actually doing any one of the 20 things wrong.
[00:24:09]  So give me an example, because I don't know golf well, but give me an example.
[00:24:13]  Well, let's say, for example, Sue is standing over the ball and she's about ready to hit.
[00:24:18]  Well, she's thinking, well, is my alignment correct?
[00:24:21]  Do I have a correct grip on the club?
[00:24:23]  Am I standing to the ball far enough?
[00:24:26]  Am I able to do that?
[00:24:27]  Oh, I see.
[00:24:28]  I never hits the ball.
[00:24:30]  Do I get my legs?
[00:24:31]  That's true.
[00:24:32]  That's the old joke of how do you paralyze a centipede?
[00:24:35]  Tell him to think about his legs.
[00:24:37]  Yeah, that's right.
[00:24:39]  That's exactly right.
[00:24:40]  Thank you so much.
[00:24:41]  All right, good.
[00:24:42]  You heard it now.
[00:24:43]  I guess it's a perfect example.
[00:24:46]  That's why I'm asking you folks to pose the question to yourself, what's the worst that could happen if I make the wrong choice?
[00:24:54]  What's the worst that could happen?
[00:24:55]  Anaheim, California?
[00:24:58]  Anaheim and Jennifer.
[00:24:59]  Hi, Jennifer, Dennis Prager.
[00:25:01]  Hi, Dennis.
[00:25:01]  I just want to say you're an intellectual hero of mine and my family, and I thank you for bringing this up.
[00:25:06]  Thank you.
[00:25:07]  I wanted to discuss the importance of parents letting their children actually practice making decisions and allowing and supporting their consequences.
[00:25:16]  Right.
[00:25:16]  And that is something that I was not allowed to do in small or large things growing up, and it has really paralyzed me as an adult.
[00:25:24]  I didn't think of that.
[00:25:25]  And I tell you, when I wasn't allowed to decide what to wear in the morning going to school, let alone what school clothes to buy.
[00:25:38]  And so now when I get up in the morning and I'm overwhelmed by the choices in front of me, oh, I could wear this, but it's not this, or that, but it's not that.
[00:25:46]  And the rare times I was allowed to make a decision, that decision was often greeted with judgment or scorn.
[00:25:54]  Oh, just do this, you know.
[00:25:57]  That's very interesting.
[00:25:58]  I need to react to that.
[00:25:59]  We'll be back in a moment.
[00:26:00]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:26:06]  Your beloved dog and a stranger are both drowning.
[00:26:09]  You can only save one.
[00:26:10]  Who do you save?
[00:26:12]  Every time Dennis Prager asks that question, his audience splits three ways.
[00:26:16]  One-third chooses the dog, one-third chooses the stranger, and one-third aren't sure.
[00:26:22]  Why?
[00:26:22]  Because we live in an age where increasingly feelings define right and wrong.
[00:26:27]  But if morality is based on emotion, then murder, rape, and theft are just opinions.
[00:26:32]  And if people feel justified, why is rioting or destruction wrong at all?
[00:26:37]  In his new book, If There Is No God, Dennis Prager explains why civilizations cannot survive without objective morality and why Judeo-Christian values shape the moral foundations of the free world.
[00:26:49]  If you claim that certain things are good, certain things are evil, independent of how you feel about it, you are, in effect, affirming golf.
[00:27:00]  If There Is No God by Dennis Prager.
[00:27:02]  Available now at PragerStore.com.
[00:27:04]  That's PragerStore.com.
[00:27:10]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:27:15]  Hi, everybody.
[00:27:16]  You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show.
[00:27:20]  This is the happiness hour, the hour I devote each week at this time to the subject of happiness.
[00:27:24]  And this week's topic is indecision and how many people are plagued by it.
[00:27:31]  My theory is that you fear making the wrong decision.
[00:27:35]  I mean, this is not, I haven't discovered America, as they say, with this revelation.
[00:27:40]  But if that is correct, then what you need to do is adopt a different philosophy, and that is, so what if you make the wrong decision?
[00:27:49]  So what?
[00:27:51]  It is very rare in life that you can't undo a bad decision.
[00:27:54]  Very, very, very rare.
[00:27:57]  And it is better to make wrong decisions than to make no decisions.
[00:28:02]  Is that right, Alan?
[00:28:04]  That's a big one.
[00:28:05]  It is better.
[00:28:06]  There's a pragorism.
[00:28:08]  We used to make a list of those things.
[00:28:10]  They were good.
[00:28:11]  Because they come out, you know, spontaneously and then they die in either the atmosphere, troposphere, ionosphere, or stratosphere.
[00:28:20]  They don't?
[00:28:22]  Oh, good.
[00:28:24]  Anyway, that's the point.
[00:28:25]  Also, it's a temperament.
[00:28:27]  It's good.
[00:28:27]  It's good.
[00:28:28]  It doesn't mean you make decisions capriciously.
[00:28:30]  You think it through, obviously, it has to have thought, it has to have a reason, but you make the decision.
[00:28:35]  What house?
[00:28:36]  What spouse?
[00:28:37]  What else?
[00:28:37]  What else rhymes with that?
[00:28:38]  What mouse?
[00:28:41]  People spend a whole five hours at a pet store choosing their mouse.
[00:28:48]  Okay, now the last lady, poor thing, when she grew up, she was not allowed to make any decisions, and she feels that that has paralyzed her as an adult.
[00:28:55]  It may well have.
[00:28:57]  It may well have.
[00:28:58]  But once you know that, I think half of your solution is there.
[00:29:04]  You know the origins.
[00:29:05]  That's why, folks, I am such a big behaviorist.
[00:29:08]  I believe you choose your behaviors and then you let your psyche come along.
[00:29:12]  Don't wait to change your psyche before you change your behavior.
[00:29:16]  First, change your behavior.
[00:29:18]  Then your psyche will travel behind it.
[00:29:22]  Okay, let's go.
[00:29:26]  And let's go to Ruthie in Souterton, Pennsylvania.
[00:29:31]  Hi, Ruthie.
[00:29:32]  Hi.
[00:29:33]  Hi.
[00:29:35]  Well, here's my question.
[00:29:37]  You're talking about being afraid of making decisions, but I'm okay with picking a mouse.
[00:29:42]  You know, it doesn't take me four hours.
[00:29:44]  But I have two big decisions coming up.
[00:29:48]  One is buying a house.
[00:29:49]  Right.
[00:29:50]  And the other one is a bonus that my boss has offered me.
[00:29:55]  And I am not afraid of, I guess it's when it's a big decision.
[00:29:58]  I have more fear of it.
[00:30:00]  Right, right.
[00:30:01]  And you said, you know, what's the worst that could happen?
[00:30:05]  Well, I don't know.
[00:30:06]  There's like nothing really that bad could happen, but I still don't want to make the wrong decision.
[00:30:11]  But how do you know what the wrong decision is?
[00:30:12]  There's no way to know.
[00:30:14]  Right.
[00:30:14]  Well, I guess that's the problem.
[00:30:15]  Well, there is no way to know.
[00:30:17]  Unless you can have a crystal ball, you can't know what the wrong decision is.
[00:30:22]  Right, but if they're both good options, how do I pick the best?
[00:30:26]  Then if they're both good options, you thank God that you have such a great life that you can choose between good and good.
[00:30:32]  So at worst, you got good and not best.
[00:30:35]  Okay, well, I'm thankful to have a good and good decision, but I still have to make it.
[00:30:41]  Okay, so give me an example here.
[00:30:43]  Maybe I can help you.
[00:30:44]  Okay.
[00:30:45]  Well, the smaller one, like I said, is a bonus.
[00:30:50]  My boss offered me a bonus, and he said, I'll either lease a car for you or I'll give you a cash, like a chunk of cash.
[00:30:59]  And so I'm not, my car that I have now is perfectly fine.
[00:31:02]  It's maybe nine years old.
[00:31:05]  It runs well.
[00:31:06]  I like it.
[00:31:07]  I would like to have a bigger one, but I would like to have money too, you know, because I'm looking to buy a house as well.
[00:31:12]  So I don't know, I don't know what to tell him.
[00:31:16]  Then there is no right decision here.
[00:31:18]  There is, there is, you have two wonderful things being, you sound almost like if he had offered you four terrific things, you'd even be in worse shape.
[00:31:27]  Probably.
[00:31:30]  Just, that's what I meant.
[00:31:31]  Thank God or your lucky stars, whichever you believe in, that you have been given this opportunity to have one or the other.
[00:31:38]  And you analyze how long, and this one is more, I think, a cerebral than even an emotional one.
[00:31:45]  Right.
[00:31:46]  Wherein you sit down and you calculate what will I benefit after all the bonus, I have to pay taxes, but I don't know what the taxes are with regard to the car lease.
[00:31:56]  How long more will my car last?
[00:31:58]  Right.
[00:31:59]  What is the amount of joy I will get from a car that I love versus the car that I now have?
[00:32:05]  And you make your list and then you make your decision and never look back.
[00:32:09]  Never look back.
[00:32:10]  That's key.
[00:32:11]  Oh, oh, you're doomed.
[00:32:13]  You're doomed if you look back.
[00:32:14]  Oh, if I had only done this in my life.
[00:32:18]  Yeah.
[00:32:19]  Well, I guess partly why I'm also crippled with indecision on this one is because what I decide on that will have an impact on other people and on my bigger, more serious real estate decision.
[00:32:31]  Like I'm trying to buy a house.
[00:32:32]  Right.
[00:32:33]  But it's just me.
[00:32:34]  I'm 27 and I'm like, if I'm not.
[00:32:38]  Well, let me just tell you this.
[00:32:39]  Buy anything now.
[00:32:41]  You're going to move anyway, Ruthie.
[00:32:44]  Nobody almost living in America is in the same house they were at 27.
[00:32:50]  And this is a low market.
[00:32:53]  Buy now.
[00:32:54]  And then you will know houses much better once you live in one and you will be able to make a far wiser decision in your next house.
[00:33:04]  The first-time homebuyer knows nothing.
[00:33:07]  I can tell you from experience.
[00:33:10]  You buy a house, you learn about houses, you see what you care about.
[00:33:14]  You don't know what you'll care about in buying a house now.

=== Buy Now, Regret Later (06:11) ===

[00:33:16]  You never bought one.
[00:33:18]  Buy something, get a good deal, and then there are a lot of rules there, but I can't review all of them now and then buy something and never look back.
[00:33:26]  People look back all the time, and this drives me nuts.
[00:33:29]  Remember, I did the show, Is It Better? Where I was passionate.
[00:33:33]  It is better to marry and divorce than never to have been married.
[00:33:37]  And it's like that.
[00:33:39]  So that didn't work out in the long run.
[00:33:42]  And so what do you do?
[00:33:43]  You look back and you say, oh, I wish I had never.
[00:33:46]  It would have been better to be single.
[00:33:48]  The vast majority of people, in fact, don't believe it would have been better to have been single that whole time.
[00:33:52]  The vast majority of divorced people.
[00:33:55]  And now, and believe me, a divorce in a marriage is far harder than a divorce from a house or a divorce from a car or a divorce from a job.
[00:34:06]  Celebrate your life.
[00:34:08]  Right, I mean it.
[00:34:09]  Celebrate your life.
[00:34:13]  Because everybody could rethink everything they have done.
[00:34:17]  We continue on the happiness hour on the Dennis Prager show.
[00:34:22]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:34:28]  Your beloved dog and a stranger are both drowning.
[00:34:31]  You can only save one.
[00:34:32]  Who do you save?
[00:34:33]  Every time Dennis Prager asks that question, his audience splits three ways.
[00:34:38]  One-third chooses the dog, one-third chooses the stranger, and one-third aren't sure.
[00:34:43]  Why?
[00:34:44]  Because we live in an age where increasingly feelings define right and wrong.
[00:34:49]  But if morality is based on emotion, then murder, rape, and theft are just opinions.
[00:34:54]  And if people feel justified, why is rioting or destruction wrong at all?
[00:34:58]  In his new book, If There Is No God, Dennis Prager explains why civilizations cannot survive without objective morality and why Judeo-Christian values shape the moral foundations of the free world.
[00:35:10]  If you claim that certain things are good, certain things are evil, independent of how you feel about it, you are, in effect, affirming God.
[00:35:22]  If There Is No God by Dennis Prager.
[00:35:24]  Available now at PragerStore.com.
[00:35:26]  That's PragerStore.com.
[00:35:31]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:35:38]  This could go on.
[00:35:40]  Really, this could go on for days.
[00:35:42]  I love the calls that I have up here.
[00:35:46]  Oh, boy.
[00:35:49]  1-8 Prager 776.
[00:35:52]  In fact, I would like Ezra to stay on for the next hour.
[00:36:00]  It's beyond the happiness issue.
[00:36:02]  So I hope he's listening.
[00:36:04]  Ezra in Gig Harbor, Washington.
[00:36:06]  Stay on.
[00:36:09]  And now I'm talking to you this hour, the happiness hour.
[00:36:13]  This is Dennis Prager, and every week at this time, I do have an hour on happiness.
[00:36:17]  The problem of people paralyzed by inability to make a decision.
[00:36:20]  I gave the real estate example.
[00:36:22]  It's endless.
[00:36:23]  House, spouse, mouse, whatever it might be.
[00:36:26]  Well, you know, I see both sides.
[00:36:28]  There are always both sides, folks.
[00:36:29]  There's always both sides.
[00:36:30]  Very rare that there aren't two sides.
[00:36:34]  I see both sides.
[00:36:35]  Of course you do.
[00:36:38]  Of course, there's going to be a house that has something the other house doesn't have.
[00:36:41]  Of course, there's going to be a man or a woman who has something that the other man or a woman doesn't have.
[00:36:46]  Of course, it's endless.
[00:36:48]  The way it works.
[00:36:52]  All righty, let's see here.
[00:36:54]  And okay, well, Jennifer is still on, but I thought I hope I dealt with that one, Jennifer.
[00:37:01]  Become behavioral.
[00:37:03]  Just make the decisions.
[00:37:04]  Force yourself to, whether you like to or not.
[00:37:07]  Folks, you don't have to be emotionally comfortable with your decisions.
[00:37:11]  There's been too much emphasis placed on feelings.
[00:37:15]  Man came over to me after a speech this week in Toronto said he was offended.
[00:37:22]  That's the only thing, only thing that drives me nuts when people react to me, because I'm not offensive at all.
[00:37:29]  What he meant to say was he didn't agree with me.
[00:37:31]  So because he felt bad with what I said, he was offended.
[00:37:35]  This is just narcissism.
[00:37:38]  Feelings are not that important.
[00:37:40]  They're unbelievably important in making us human, of course.
[00:37:44]  But not in making our decisions.
[00:37:48]  Okay, let's see here.
[00:37:50]  My girlfriend, this is Andrew in Dallas.
[00:37:52]  My girlfriend couldn't make decisions for the life of her, but my impatience has made her more decisive.
[00:37:57]  Exactly.
[00:37:58]  That's what people mean.
[00:38:01]  You can't become enablers of the unhappy.
[00:38:05]  It's another topic for you.
[00:38:07]  Enablers of the unhappy.
[00:38:08]  That's what a lot of people do.
[00:38:11]  Give them feedback.
[00:38:12]  You know, you can't live this way, a dear girlfriend whom I love.
[00:38:16]  All right, that's another one.
[00:38:17]  Dave in Colorado Springs.
[00:38:19]  I have a girlfriend who I intellectually know is bad for me, but I'm so emotionally attached I can't break up with her.
[00:38:26]  Well, Dave, that's sort of self-answering, I think.
[00:38:32]  Why don't you take out an ad in the obituary column?
[00:38:35]  Make believe you died and just leave.
[00:38:41]  Bobby, I'm sorry I didn't get to you.
[00:38:43]  And Lee as well.
[00:38:45]  Make decisions.
[00:38:46]  This is Dennis.
[00:38:54]  This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:38:58]  Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs and to purchase Dennis Prager's rational Bibles.
[00:39:12]  Your beloved dog and a stranger are both drowning.
[00:39:15]  You can only save one.
[00:39:16]  Who do you save?
[00:39:18]  Every time Dennis Prager asks that question, his audience splits three ways.
[00:39:22]  One-third chooses the dog, one-third chooses the stranger, and one-third aren't sure.

=== Drowning Dilemma (00:42) ===

[00:39:28]  Why?
[00:39:28]  Because we live in an age where increasingly feelings define right and wrong.
[00:39:33]  But if morality is based on emotion, then murder, rape, and theft are just opinions.
[00:39:38]  And if people feel justified, why is rioting or destruction wrong at all?
[00:39:42]  In his new book, If There Is No God, Dennis Prager explains why civilizations cannot survive without objective morality and why Judeo-Christian values shape the moral foundations of the free world.
[00:39:55]  If you claim that certain things are good, certain things are evil, independent of how you feel about it, you are, in effect, affirming God.
[00:40:06]  If There Is No God by Dennis Prager, available now at Pragerstore.com.