Have you ever wondered if you are making the right decision? Maybe it’s about buying your first house or leaving one employment for another. Depending upon the type of decision you need to make and the choices available, you might feel overwhelmed in the process and not know which way to turn. So how can you be reassured that you have made the right decision when it affects a major aspect of your life?
Here are six tips to help you make the decision right for you.
6 Tips for Making Decisions
- What is important and valuable to you?What you value may not be of much importance to someone else. Know what you value most and hold it close to you. Try using a simple decision making tool, such as listing the pros and cons of each choice. If it’s a new job that you are considering, this would mean listing the pros (what you value) and cons of staying in our current job and then listing the pros and cons of taking the new job. Weight each of the pros and cons by assigning a score between one and five. Follow your instincts as you tally up the pros and then the cons for each choice.
- Don’t lose focus of your future. Many people tend to make choices based on life as it is right now instead of looking to the future. Does your choice and its outcomes align with the goals that you have set for yourself in the future? Decisions need to be ecological. In other words they need to take into consideration every aspect of your life and that includes your future.
- Have you considered all of the alternatives and different scenarios? When you start to think of alternatives you just might consider a different outcome. By including alternatives it introduces the freedom of choice.
- Give yourself time decide. Depending on when the decision needs to be made tell yourself that you’ll decide in an hour, in three days, or in a week from now or whatever time is reasonable under the circumstances. Pick a time or date and decide not to decide until then. Then use the time to collect the necessary information you need to help you make your decision, but remember you aren’t making a decision until the specified time. This is very powerful and allows you to make the decision on your own timeline. In the meanwhile, take a walk in the county, go for a run, meditate or do whatever activity that allows you to connect with yourself to be still inside. This is where you will find the answer.
- How important is this decision and are you willing to work on it?Don’t get caught up with how important a choice is, instead think about the positive impact it will have on your life. If the choice doesn’t have a positive outcome, is it really the right choice for you? Return to tip number 3 and think about the alternatives. This might also be a good time for you to call your coach to help you identify a few alternatives and work through the decision making process.
- Don’t forget to use your intuition. Listen to your gut feeling. Let it guide you. Life is made up of a series of choices and choices are based on one of two things: love or fear. On the surface they might look different, but if you take the time to get to the core of your decision making you will find they are generally driven by a feeling of insecurity, loss, regrets of the past (fear) or by the desire to make a difference, to contribute, or to help another (love).
When making decisions what’s important is that they brings out the best in you and allow you to be best that you can possibly be. The choices you make today not only define who you are in the present – they determine your world game in the future.
St Julien Performance Group - Coaching for Results 