As a human with a limited time to live, we have a constant need for short-cuts in order to be time efficient. This same time constraint is also the driving force for us to ponder about the meaning of our lives, because we will not be here forever, so it is natural to ask where we were and where we are going. Time constraint is the mother of everything in this physical world. Time makes us to think about meaning, and the same time is working against our understanding the meaning of life by tempting us to take short-cuts.

In this culture of post-modernity where real meaning of most of our lives has been long lost, it is hard to find what are the questions that really needs your attention and deserves an answer. Here are some questions as a starting point for your consideration:

1. Who are you?

2. Where were you?

3. Where are you going?

Instead of asking those questions, we are more interested in some immediate issues like 

1. What shoe I need to wear  in order to be more sexy?

2. What are the best ways to spend my easy money with my mistress?

3. What brand of toilet paper is recommended by your doctors?

If you decide to deal with first sets of questions, which are more general, eternal and of sublime importance, your natural starting point would be science and religion. But demystifying what religion is, why it started, who started it, is a daunting task. Much easier would be to follow what the priest say. But in case you really want to have your own answers to those questions, you have to dig deeper. The deeper you dig, it will become clearer that the world religions are Man made. They were started by Man, maintained by Man, amended and adjusted by Man to fit the need of time and culture. If you do not have time, and want to decide quickly, your verdict will be, religions are just nonsense, made up by Man! Once you convinced yourself, too quickly, that there is no substance in these so called religions, you have to turn yourself towards science to find your answers. If you want to find answers in science, which is a inferior mode of finding those nonscientific questions, the following quotes by Steven Weinberg will be the answer "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless." In this dilemma where you can see that religion is a made up things by Man and science is not going anywhere, under the time constraints embedded in human nature to decide quickly, you will decide that there is no meaning of life. Nobody can convince you that there is any meaning of life. Because it's your own voluntary will, it is and will always be valid, no matter what, and it will become the new law, at least in your universe, that cannot be overruled. So before you decide anything you have to be really careful to make sure why you are deciding quickly. Is it you want to decide to get the ego boost for apparent rightness or you decided because that's the reality and there is no other explanation. You have to also very careful in your decision to check if you have any presupposed idea or preference or cognitive bias towards your intended decision or if you have some hidden biological, social, political or financial agenda but not consciously aware of those.

If you can see the real situations or the real issues or the real problems, despite all the aforementioned noises, even then, do not decide instantly. Wait for a period of time, typically weeks to months to years. I am also aware of many mundane situations, where you cannot wait, rather you have to act quickly, because those has an immediate biological need (for example, you are hungry), or survival significance. Aside from those or similar situations, you don't have to decide quickly. You are not in hurry and hurry will distort your decision making ability. The issues that we are talking about in this discourse are not an urgent thing to decide quickly, not a shallow river to cross easily, not an easy cognitive task to be done by a rhesus monkey, not a job to claim that you are right and others are wrong. So, do not decide quickly and easily. You have enough time to do that in your life but do not do it under fixed time constraints. However, it does not mean that you can loiter away all of your valuable times and behave like a prodigal who has spent all of his money, but nothing left when he has to buy some life saving supplies.

If you are really sure that the decision you are making is the right one then try the following thought experiment. Try to reach the polar opposite conclusion that you previously make. Your only safeguard in this stage in utmost honesty and modesty. Do not try to distort, or get ego boost, but try to consider all explanations to explains the nature of the issues or situations. Be like Sherlock Holmes to rule out as many possibilities as possible & feasible and at the end use Ockham's razor for whatever remained after SherlockHolmian exclusion method. If you keep doing this for a period of time [in contrast to instant decision] then the real situation or truth will unfold before your very eyes. Because you waited enough, thought enough, cooked your own body enough, fermented your thought enough, your transformed mind will see the truth and then you can decide wisely. That is the only way you can decide, non-blindly. It's not easy, it will not give you ego boost quickly and it takes lots of time. All of these are exact reason why people tend to decide, even on very important life decisions, very quickly. Your premature decisions will blind you and do not dare to decide before your blindfolds has been lifted!