Making good and right decisions is not everybody’s cup of tea. In fact, there are many people, no matter how influential and high achieving, who face difficulties while making correct decisions. Not only in your job and professional life, but also in your personal life and relationships, quick and correct decisions are a necessity. Thoughtful, yet fast decisions are required in everyone’s everyday life.
Often it happens that even a slightly wrong decisions can make everything go wrong. You must have all faced something like that in your lives. To make sure it doesn’t happen any more, here are a few ways in which you can develop your decision making skills and make more healthy decisions in your life.
1. Don’t let temporary emotions, jeopardize permanent decisions
While making important decisions, professional or personal, make sure you rely more on logic than on emotions. Emotionally driven decisions often tend to be problematic in the long run, while well thought decisions are more beneficial.
2. Weigh your pros and cons
Writing down the negatives and positives effects that your choices may have helps a lot. Jotting them down also helps you understand your decision in a better and concrete way. When you have all the outcomes, good and bad, written in front of you, it is easier to know if the decision is correct or not.
3. Narrow your options
If you have to choose between a lots of available options, be quick in striking out the ones that don’t suit you. That way, you would have narrowed down your options to the best ones and then it’s easier to choose among them. Also, narrowing down your choices assures you that you are working correctly.
4. Research
Before deciding anything for sure, research thoroughly. Check if anything can majorly go wrong. Put in time and effort to learn more about what you need to choose. Again, writing down points help a lot in maintaining an organised way to make decisions.
5. Consult others, but in the end choose on your own
Yes, you can consult your colleagues, friends or family about the problems you are facing while taking a particular decision. But don’t get too carried away by anybody’s opinion. Listen to everybody but do what you want to do in the end. Don’t get influenced or affected by what others tell you.
6. Plan well ahead
Make a plan and try to stick to it. In that way, you get ample time to make your decisions and dwell on them. Spontaneous decisions are very often hazardous. Make sure you have ample time to decide and study the effects. And you have time to take your decision back if anything goes wrong and come up with a new plan.
7. Small stuffs don’t really matter
Properly manage your time and energy. Do not put much effort in making small decisions which do not matter that much. Yes, they are important but if anything does not affect you much, then why spend too much time mulling over it? So do away with all small decisions very quickly.
8. Lastly, don’t live in the past
One, or many of your past decisions didn’t go to well. It’s okay. You don’t have to think about it again and again. Everybody makes mistakes. It is human nature. Don’t forget what you did wrong in the past, let it be your lesson. But there’s no point dwelling over past choices for long. So get over it and make wonderful decisions in present!
Hope these points helped you in improving your decision making abilities!