RE: Making Better Decisions. A discussion about Free Will.
Yes, I agree. Mindfullness is a good tool, but it is not synonymous with meta cognition and reflective learning. Both of these also allow us to exercise free will and move beyond a life that passively expresses cause and effect.
Your point about uneccesary decisions is a good one. When using a compass one only needs to decide on a destination and check the direction they need to head. That is the hard part, get it wrong and you will be lost. Get it right and all that is required is to check every so often that you are heading in the right direction. Make the big decisions and set your goals, from this smaller goals necessarily emerge. I only review once weekly the smaller goals, the larger ones less often. My brain is often in 'cruise control' a lot of the other time. Recent research showing will displays properties of a finite resource would support the idea of strategic decision making.
My friend refers to the cruise control that we experience as a type of zombie, you point it in a direction and it walks. I recently wrote a piece on habits that in an indirect way discuss setting behaviours around a set of goals.
You're right that mindfulness doesn't directly translate to reflective learning, as you have understood, it is a tool rather than an action.