Ah, decisions… Life would have been so much easier without having to constantly make choices. These can vary from the ordinary ones such as what meal you are going to have for dinner, to more sophisticated and important ones like your career choice. I used to take ages to make up my mind and what’s worst, I would over think a scenario to such an extent that making a decision was more difficult than it had been before my thinking process! If you are overly perfectionistic like me and fed up of being in a decisions’ limbo, keep on reading as I have compiled a methodology for making decisions you will never regret!
First of all, there are four different ways people make decisions. You can either make your choice about something by following your emotions, following your intuition (gut feeling), following the current status quo or by using your mind in a logical way.
Following your emotions
Following emotions is dangerous. This does not only apply to teenagers who are naturally more prone to making decisions based on how they feel. Emotions are in each and every one of us and often they just need a little external push to overwhelm us entirely. Whether you are under influence of a very strong positive emotion or a negative one, it is probably best to hold on to making that choice until your emotions calm down. Acting under a very strong emotional influence will almost always lead you to a bad choice.
If you don’t believe me, ask any stock trader or a broker. Have you ever bought something impulsively and only didn’t regret it due to the free returns policy? You can probably name dozens of examples when following an impulse led you astray.
Following your intuition
The mysterious inner voice that tells you to do something even when everything else is against it. The gut feeling which you get when making a difficult choice regarding your future when there is no way to predict all possibilities. People talk about it, use it often but none of them have a clear idea of what it really is.
Intuition as opposed to following your emotional impulses will nearly always help you make the right choice. Now, why is that? There are many theories. The one I use to explain it is the theory of the Universal Organism, the interconnected Universe that knows all the possibilities. But regardless of what you believe it is, I dare you to develop this skill and use it in your decision making process for it will save you hours and hours of over-thinking future events you don’t even have a direct control over.
Following the established status quo
This decision making technique is very easy to apply in life. It somewhat takes away your personal input towards making the choice. A classic example is the old days when traditionally a senior member of a family would make a decision for you. Whether you liked it or not, you had to go with it coz it’s just how things were those days.
Nowadays, this technique evolved by means of the established status quo or hard-written values set in stone which you are free to follow in your decision making process. While it can occasionally be beneficial to look at the rules like when you are driving and don’t want to cause an accident, it is better to stick to the rules. Another time you may feel unhappy marrying someone you don’t love because your family wants you to and you feel you owe that to them. But is that really the right decision to make. I leave that up to you.
Following your mind
In the world where logical thinking is encouraged, everyone will tell you to use your mind and tackle your problems and make your decisions in a logical way. This approach does work well, when you have all the information needed to make the decision, available to you at that moment.
Unfortunately, most of the decisions you will need to make in life will involve knowing facts or outcomes from events which will happen in the future. There is no way you can predict future events with your logical brain. If you do try to make such decisions with your logical mind, you will fall into an overthinking loop, where you keep analyzing facts all over again. This approach will drive you crazy.
Other times, when you do make a decision in a logical manner disregarding future outcomes, you may become unhappy with it as time passes and unfolds the missing pieces you didn’t know at the time of making your choice. By all means, do use your mind in analysing facts in your hand when making a decision, but you must bear in mind that future may unfold new things which will change your view on the matter.
Not making your decision at all
And there it is, another approach to decision making – not making a decision at all. If you chose not to make a decision, you will either lose a very good opportunity or inevitably allow other people to make a decision for you. None of these two scenarios are appealing to a person who wants to live their life to the fullest. Take an ownership of your life – do make decisions!
Your new approach to decision making
- Logical matters tackle with your mind. When you have all the data in front of you and the situation is very clear, it makes sense to use your logical mind in the decision making process. For example, if the winter is coming and your last year’s coat doesn’t fit you anymore – it is obvious you are going to need a new one!
- Long term decisions are the most tricky. This is because as much as you can get a possible glimpse into the future, you can never know for sure! In such cases, learn to deploy your intuition to aid with making a decision. Good examples here are matters regarding your career choice or a relationship.
- Don’t ever make decisions under influence of strong Wait for them to calm down and revisit the decision making process.
- Find experts to hear their advice but make decision on your own. These people have a great deal of knowledge in a particular field. This can help you to make a decision. Beware – don’t follow their advice blindly, they are only people after all and can make mistakes!
- Take your time to make an important decision. If something really matters to you, do take your time, analyse all the options logically, employ intuition and talk to experts. Allow some time for yourself to digest all the learnings to make the right choice.
After all, we are only humans. We make mistakes and that’s OK. If you make one – don’t worry and try to correct it if you can. It will serve as the best lesson for the future you to make better decisions!
