It can be fascinating to learn about our psychological blind spots: the predictable mistakes that we’re uncannily likely to make because of the way our brains work. Loss-averse thinking is one of these. We will put more effort into avoiding a loss than we will into achieving an equal gain.

Here’s another of these oddities that I’ve picked up from the book Stumbling on Happiness. Most people expect to regret things we DID that turned out badly (like when you tell off your boss in front of the office in a moment of spite) more than things we DIDN’T do (like when you pass on buying that hot stock just before it doubles in value). Makes sense, right? The fact is, though, that it actually works out the other way around. Our brains are much better at justifying bad things that happened to us because of something we DID—an action we took. The fact that we made a decision (maybe even a courageous one) redeems a good deal of the suffering we experience if it takes a wrong turn.

So, other things being equal, taking action is the safer bet in difficult decisions. We’re more likely to be happy with it in the long run.