Just to speak to the larger issue, "on the whole it works out great," if that is true I do not believe that is by luck or accident. I think in the long run you know what decisions to make for yourself, even if you don't realize it. Moving cross country on an impulse would be a scary and dangerous idea for most people, but if it is something that works for you then that's all you need to know.

I do understand that you are asking about the things that you would like to have more control over and I do hope the suggestions will help you find your goal. But in the long run don't be overly concerned because you seem to be doing OK in many ways. Maybe it isn't a matter of making impulsive decisions, but finding a balance as to which impulsive decisions to act on and which to avoid. Ozzie suggests that kind of balance in her post.

My dad used to NEVER make impulsive decisions on purchases, but to the point where he would literally spend MONTHS researching and comparing and pricing just about anything we bought except for groceries. It killed the joy of purchasing anything, because we got so bogged down in the process. As a result I did good when I got on my own and found a good balance. I was lucky not to have just gone in the other direction and bought everything on impulse. The balance always worked very well for me. I research stuff for a short time before laying out a lot of money. But I am not afraid to do an impulse buy either. However usually an "impulse buy" is something I have already researched, it may just be something that I've read a lot about but wasn't really considering buying, so when I had the "impulse" to buy I was already "informed".

I got off topic... sorry.