“Closing the gap between where you are and where you want to be”. Tony Robbins
Chocolate or fruit? Life or death? Decisions, decisions, decisions. People often say that they find it difficult to make decisions. Unfortunately, we all have to make decisions, decisions that shape everything, from government to CEOs, ranging from trivial low value issues to life-changing important decisions. Problems may be mounting; pressure may be building up and its reliant and waiting on your decision. The decisions you make is the difference between success and failure, abundance or emptiness. You may be worried that you might make the wrong decision, but the worst option is not making a decision at all. Decisions involve an element of uncertainty, but if you wait until you can guarantee the outcome, you’ll never make the decision. This may be as damaging as the outcome you fear that is holding you back. Life shouldn’t be happening to you; it should be happening for you.
Before making up your mind to see if a decision needs to be made, make sure you are the correct person to be making the decision in the first place. Maybe there is somebody else that should be making this decision on your behalf. This could lead to a decision-making dead end or a complete waste of time.
Learn with these 7 decisions making steps to help you through the process.
Step 1: Goal Balance Sheet
Write it down! Thinking about your problems causes looping in your head, this causes a lot of stress as you keep going back to your first thought. Writing everything down on a piece of paper becomes clearer, and you will be able to see the opportunities vs obstacles. Focus on the decision that needs to be made, this relieves stress and pressure. Wherever your focus goes, your energy goes, so be careful not to stray away from your focus and be careful what you focus on.
Use the rational decision of listing the advantages and disadvantages (benefits, costs, pros and cons). Don’t let fear paralyze you, as soon as you focus on fear, your energy will defuse. Be aware and identify your body language, values, preferences and beliefs, as these all affect your decision making. Rational decisions are generally made on the determination of the possibilities of the outcome. Irrational decisions are usually made on emotions rather than experience. These irrational decisions are generally biased. By acknowledging your emotions, you can take power back over these emotions, before they take power over you. Be very clear about your feelings. What you want and why you want it. Intuitive decisions are based on initial feelings and gut reactions. Don’t rely on wishful thinking or spontaneous decisions. Determine what is driving you to make this decision based on these qualities. When you realize this, you can control the fear before it controls you. Let go of fear, fear will ruin your life. Fear can feel comfortable, but it will keep you in a pattern of inaction. You need to let go of all the things that are not serving you and fear can be an excuse for you to stay in a situation that is not working for you.
You need to take a chance on yourself. This response will then lead to the best decision.
Step 2: Brainstorming
This is when you review your pros and cons from the step before. Set your objective or course correctly from the outset as not to waste precious time and the whole journey will run smoothly. Take time, quality, and people into consideration. What is the result you are after? Why do you want to achieve it? And why does this problem need to be solved? Set your goals based on importance. Be crystal clear about your outcome and purpose. The clearer you are about your reasoning, the more likely you are to feel satisfied about your decision regardless of the outcome. When gathering information, it is best to make a list of every possible alternative; even ones that may initially sound silly or seem unrealistic. Seek the dependent style decision opinion of asking people that you trust or speak to experts and professionals, because it will help you to come up with a variety of solutions when weighing all your options for a final decision.
Step 3: Consequences
What are your options. In this step, you will be asking yourself what is likely to be the results of your decision. How will it affect you now? And how will it affect your future? This will affect yourself and others. What are the ups and what do I gain? Be committed to your vision, values and priorities. When considering the consequences, you must be open to a broad choice of alternatives in order to find the best solution. This can become a problem if you rely solely on a single source of information because that one source may not be reliable, or may not be completely in line with the problem: thus altering your chances of making the best decision. Don’t get bogged down with too much information. If you are battling to get through the piles of documents, learn to speed read.
Step 4: Evaluate
In this option, you will be able to illuminate some options and get closer to your direction. What will the outcome be if I take each option? What is the importance of each option? What will the emotional benefits be?
Step 5: Risks
Review each remaining option, now we evaluate the risks or what the downsides will be? Come up with ways to illuminate or downsize to reduce the problems. This step is very important as it allows you to be proactive about how to handle problems should they arise after your decision has been made. Always looking for and anticipating unexpected problems will help alleviate undue stress, if and when a problem occurs. Many times, the problem will be obvious; but there may come a time when identifying the main problem is not that easy. When this issue arises, figuring out exactly what it is, and where you need to focus your efforts will save you a lot of time and energy in the long run. Understanding that this step can cause some people a lot of anxiety. Although you may still be slightly indecisive about your final decision, you have to take into account how this makes you feel. Ask yourself, does it feel right? And does this decision work best for you now, and in the future? When you answer those questions, you should feel good about the result. Don’t be tempted to choose the easier path, remind yourself of the reasoning, believe you can do it and you will know that the decision is right. When you know the reason why you have been making a particular decision; it will better serve you in staying with it, and defending it.
Step 6: Decision time
Choose the best option based on desired outcomes and needs. This will be your best option as you have looked at all the possibilities and you know this to be sure. This will also help you to beat procrastination. This option will give you a win even if your tough decision ends up being a failure. You can still choose what it means to you. Instead of seeing this as a failure, rather look at this as a learning curve. Use a decision called Can I sleep at night? Ask yourself what will I most regret if I take this option? What will I most regret if I don’t take it? The old trick of sleeping on a decision can also work. It gives your unconscious mind the opportunity to rearrange all the pieces into a pattern that makes sense. The picture may be much clearer by morning.
Now we need to implement the decision with massive action.
Step 7: Implement, Evaluate and Monitor
Now you need to commit, the time for dithering is over. Accepting uncertainty is a lot better when you have a process to fall back on. Take action and be ready to deal with the consequences. It is better to make decisions and monitor it to see if you need to shift your approach, than to remain in paralyzed indecision. It will help you to further develop your decision-making skills for future problems. This step is also fundamental because it may require you to seek out new information and make some changes along the way.
It sometimes happens that people who have made a bad decision stick to it even as the evidence of failure mounts. They may even commit additional time, effort and resources to this failing course of action in order to try and turn the situation around. This tendency to become trapped in a bad decision. People responsible for the initial decision may realize that if they back away from it, they will be admitting that they made a mistake. Take full responsibility for your mistakes. Apologize and explain your mistakes. Don’t harbor on the negative and over think your bad decision. Separate from your decision so that it does not have power over you. Don’t get into a situation where you are questioning or doubting yourself, you are taking away your power to think for yourself and hurting your self-esteem. This is a waste of time, be your own cheerleader. Everyone makes mistakes, accept what’s happened, learn your lesson, realign, reevaluate your goals and keep moving forward.
Inspired By:
Fast Thinking Managers Manual by Ros Jay
Join my many subscribers and receive tools, tips and resources from Body of Brilliance. Come join the journey with me!
Privacy Policy
We respect your privacy and will not share your information. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.
Body of Brilliance 
3 thoughts on “Decision-making”