How do you make decisions? Do you have difficulty making a decision? What are the ingredients that make for better decisions?

When you are about to make a decision is the best place to ask yourself why? Why do you need to make this decision? This question gets to the heart of the matter. This is a different reality than fear. Oftentimes fear keeps us from making decisions. Facts must determine our direction, not fear or the concern of what may happen if you make this choice. Making decisions is not for the faint of heart. Decisions are a part of everyday life, here are some suggestions of things you should consider as you make your decisions:

  • Don’t overthink. Yes, you should think and some research would be a good idea as well. You can list the pros and cons. As the old saying goes “after all is said and done, usually, a lot more is said than done.” Many people study the situation for so long and they gather so much information that they suffer from analysis paralysis. Think yes, don’t overthink. Gather the information you need with the understanding that if some more things come to light after the fact, most of the time you can make adjustments.
  • Seek advice from others. No one of us is as smart as all of us, therefore ask for help. The people around you will bring in different perspectives and viewpoints. The more input the better the outcome. Besides helping to make better decisions it also builds stronger teams as we learn from one another. One word of caution, make sure you are seeking information from people who have expertise. Be careful not to listen too long to people who have no experience or idea of what they are talking about. I would be hesitant to take dieting advice from an obese person, or investing insight from a bankrupt person.
  • Set a time limit for the decision. Many decisions will come with a built-in time deadline. If the issue you are working with does not come with a hard deadline, create one. a deadline creates urgency and enables you to focus on coming to a decision. Procrastination seems to grow when there is no finish date. This is the reason that you should set a date when you will make the decision. You will be able to marshall the team and process the information and make a decision
  • Are you conflicted regarding the decision you are about to make? It is not unusual periodically to have doubts and to question the decision just made. Often that is just fear, but if you are feeling conflicted, I would take another look and make sure you are not missing a key factor. This gets you to look at everything and you may see something that was missed previously. In essence, this is one more opportunity to review and then move on to the next project.

Remember regardless of what your job is, your main responsibility is to make decisions! In the end, we only regret the things we did not do and the decison we did not make or waited to long to decide.

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