Making the right decisions

Patterns Of Excellence

Some of us find it easy to make decisions while others tend to procrastinate a lot when it comes to making decisions - particularly if they are important ones that could alter the pathway of our life. When making decisions in life changing situations it can be hard for everyone, after all the choice you make will affect your life and the route you choose to go might not be easily reversible or impossible to change. If we stop and look back on some of the biggest moments in our life that went wrong, we find that our biggest regrets come from faulty decision-making. Perhaps we went with our gut instinct when making a decision or we let ourselves be swayed by others, there are many reasons why we make the wrong decisions in life and almost everyone will have made the wrong decision at some time in their life. 

Here are some tips to help you with decision-making.

• Remember when making a decision, no decision is right or wrong, decisions are merely making a choice among alternatives.
• Always avoid making a snap decisions about something, if a decision is easily reversible then you can move fast on it while irreversible ones should be thought out.
• Jot down notes when making a decision, write down all solutions and include all relevant information, by seeing it written down in black and white sometimes the answer is staring you in the face.
• Write down all the pros and cons of the decision you make, it can help clarify your decision or help you to see any problems the decision might have.
• Make one decision at a time, never allow decisions to build up and force yourself to make them all at once.
• If others will be affected by your decision then get their input on the situation.
• Make a decision and stick with it, you have to recognize that you cannot know with 100% certainty that it is the right one but once made stick with it.
• Before following a decision through ask yourself what if anything could go wrong if you followed through with this choice.
• Once you have committed yourself to your decision then go with it whole-heartedly, let go of all the “what ifs” and do not bother yourself anymore.
• Visualize your decision in your head and follow it through in your mind, visualize all outcomes of the decision before actually following it through.
• Put faith in your ability to make a successful decision and your ability to follow it through.
• Review all the facts thoroughly before you make a decision, once you have reviewed them allow yourself to time to think about them before drawing a conclusion and determining your decision from the facts.
• Always try to base your decisions on what is right or feels the right thing to do.
• Remember to look at the objective of the decision, the alternatives to the decision and the risks of any alternatives to the decision.

Patterns Of Excellence