Can Decision Making Be Made More Simple?
We all experience and go through the decision-making process as it's part of being human and living. Over time, you should develop the skills for making better decisions based on past experiences and any newfound knowledge, however sometimes it doesn't feel simple.
Luckily there are also steps you can take to learn how to make better decisions for yourself, your future, personally or for your working life.
In this article, we simply explore some great ways you can make better decisions. We look forward to your feedback on 0447770011.
1. Try not to overthink the process
To come to a definitive decision, most decisions should come with some thinking as you weigh the pros, cons, consequences and all the available options. But overthinking can keep you from being able to make a final decision creating so much tension in the body that it creates unnecessary stress and anxiety.
It's important to be able to come to a conclusion without too much time spent evaluating everything that can cause you to make a decision you might not normally have made.
There are many ways to stop yourself from over-thinking and simply writing down all the issues once will help stop you from continuing to overthink each step or barrier.
2. Sometimes briefly step away!
There will be times when stepping away from the decision itself can be helpful. Often the more you overthink something and keep thinking about having to make a decision, the more likely you are to bring doubt into your decision-making process.
This type of procrastination itself can become a pattern and affect future decisions you have to make and become almost a habit longer term.
If you're struggling with your decision, take a step away from it and return when your mind feels more clear, and do something different in the process. You may want to go for a walk out in nature or somewhere new, stretch parts of your body you don't normally stretch, have a massage or go for a drive before returning to making a decision.
3. Take care of yourself better
Decision making capabilities require a certain amount of clarity and focus and what you eat, how you are sleeping and your water intake can affect how you choose and what you do as well as who you spend time with.
In the middle of a decision making process it may take a few days or weeks to decide and during this time it may help to get to sleep a little earlier and stop using electronics right before bedtime.
Perhaps even refrain from using social media or communicating with certain people just for that period of time. During the day, drink eight glasses of water or light liquids like clear soup and get some exercise into your normal routine to help the blood flow, or just walking or stretching can be beneficial.
You may find it easier to drink if you keep a water bottle next to you at all times and put some lemon juice into it to find it more enjoyable and being more joyful can often help in the decision-making process itself.
4. Ask people for their opinion but be wise
Sometimes it’s simple to make the decision yourself, but often getting great sound advice from someone that you respect or who is appreciate can be a wise choice. This might be even more important when the decision itself impacts on others.
There can often be a lot of emotions involved in the decision process and getting input from other helpful sources can be greatly beneficial to making a decision and resolve how you feel about it. Here it is better to choose someone that will be helpful and perhaps who doesn't have a vested interest in the decision itself or in the outcome or who might sway you either way.
Sound advice or the opinion of someone who is not bias or who can be a 'sound board' without too much input can be extremely helpful and reduce the time and struggle it can take to make an important decision.
5. Don't shy away from your mistakes
Often people don’t make a decision or avoid it all together because they are afraid of making a mistake or thinking that they might 'get it wrong' and don't want to seem like they are failing.
One of the best ways to make better decisions is by facing your mistakes and learning from them and realising that everyone is in the same position when it comes to decision making. A mistake depending on the extent of it, is often something that you can recover from but avoiding decision-making altogether can make life ridden with anxiety, fear and ultimately make it quite boring or exhausting.
Making mistakes is part of life and isn’t always 'bad' or necessarily a negative thing longer term. Often in hindsight ‘mistakes’ can give you more confidence to try something new and give you more trust in your abilities to make decisions in the future based on your experiences. Without any mistakes we don’t learn and don’t grow and it is important as inner trust is something that can only be learnt through making decisions and taking action.
6. Examine the complete opposite of your decision
Look at the complete opposite extremes of your decision, from both sides. Before moving forward with what you feel is your final decision, make sure you've considered the complete opposite and examine what the consequences are for both.
It's important to be sure about your decisions, and examining other options is part of the decision making process and healthy to do but not to 'overdo.
You can gain confidence that you're making the right decision or come up with different choices that you may not have thought about by analysing more and looking at both extremes and choosing the most appropriate decision.
By challenging yourself, you're also challenging any long-held beliefs you've had up until then and that may also have clouded your past decisions. Examining choices helps you to make well-rounded decisions and grow as a decision-maker for the future as well.
7. Give yourself advice – be your own counsellor or life coach
Most of the time we have to make decisions by ourselves but there’s nothing wrong with pretending you’re giving the best advice to a friend in the process of decision making.
To make better decisions, you can pretend like you're giving advice to a friend on how to proceed and by doing this, you're removing yourself from a situation enough to be more objective in your decision.
Often it can be easier to advise a friend, plus you may find that you're kinder to yourself and are more positive about your role in making important choices.
8. Manage your emotions
Emotions generally play a role in your decision making, but it becomes necessary to make sure you're acting with emotional intelligence if you want to make better decisions.
There is a delicate balance to asking for feedback and there is a similar way of managing your own emotions and eventually you need to decide what to do.
Simply writing to columns whereby one is based on your emotions and how you feel and the other is based on more rational thinking can help. Too much emotion can cloud your judgment, causing you to make decisions that you may not have if you were thinking more rationally and stop you from making a decision at all.
9. Short- and long-term consequences
Nearly every decision has benefits and negatives, short- and long-term consequences, and it's important to think about both when you're coming to a conclusion and making that decision.
This is a great way to resolve how things will pan out long term and what it may look like a great short-term decision may not be wonderful when looking at the long-term perspective, and vice versa.
Exploring decisions can cause some disorganization or discomfort in the short-term, but understanding both short and beneficial longer-term benefits can make everything well worth it.
It’s important to see that once a decision is made, things change and transformation may not always be simple or easy to follow through on but necessary for the process and for you to enjoy the decision you've made.
10. Accept the possibility of making a poor decision
Decision making comes with being human and being a better decision maker involves being willing to take risks and know that not every decision you make is not necessarily going to be the best one.
The possibility of making a ‘mistake’ is just a decision-making process that could be or become a ‘poor decision’ that then has to be accepted. But gaining confidence also comes with learning new things and sometimes a poor decision can lead to greater learning and better opportunities in the future.
The benefit of knowing that there are more possibilities once the decision has been made is always attractive, and if it is not the right decision you can choose again with better tools in decision making next time and have greater insight.
11. Stay true to your highest values
When you stay true to your highest values during the decision-making process, it can make more sense and should be easier to see the path in front of you.
Decision making actually helps you to identify what is important to you and what is more important to you can change over time but your highest values will help you to focus on making the best decision for you.
Your highest values are often something like, honest, being genuine, kindness and sincerity and when you focus on these whilst making the decision, it often is easy to make.
Staying true to your highest values will often give you more confidence and helps you accept your decision even when things don't work out as you were hoping short term.
12. Use data and analytics
When making a decision it can also help to get more information, data or analytics. This is often the case when presenting or relaying the decision-making process to someone else by utilising the analytics to support your decision itself and the entire decision-making process.
Data and analytics and reports can help you make decisions based on history, trends and projections and to understand how processes have worked in the past and produce actionable insights that you can use to your advantage to help your future.
13.Getting professional help & support
Professional help can range from many things such as a coach, counsellor, psychologist or anyone with more professional experience in decision making processes can be beneficial, and in this context it means that there is often some kind of payment or investment to make.
It is completely personal how quickly one should decide to take on a professionals' service and it depends on many factors including how promptly one needs to make that decision.
When deciding on a professional we suggest that you investigate how that person can help, their experience and the respect factor which all can greatly impact the process and whether they often a money back guarantee.
Looking at your options and the possibilities in the decision-making process can take the pressure off having to make a final decision and alleviate some of the stress and related anxiety and make it more fun.
Life itself is about hopefully enjoying the journey and taking small or big steps can make life more exciting or interesting along the way and sometimes not deciding at all is a decision you might need, or not have to make.