How to Make Decisions So before I start, I have a question for you.
How good is your decision making?
Do you sometimes get feelings of doubt or uncertainty when you make decisions?
Are you one of those people, who spend hours debating over an idea in your mind before
finally coming to a final conclusion?
Do you hate making decisions?
If you are nodding right now, then this video is definitely for you.
In today’s video, we are going to discuss decision making, and give you nine tips, which
you can use to be a confident and better decision maker.
But first, let me introduce you to Sara, a 22 year-old lady currently taking a degree
in business management.
Prior to pursuing business management, Sara was an architecture student.
Right from childhood and into adulthood, Sara never made any significant decisions for herself.
In fact, pursuing architecture was her family’s choice since she could join her Uncle’s
architecture firm.
From a tender age, Sara lived under her parents’ care and control.
She styled her hair in a tight ponytail manner to please her mother, even though she liked
letting her hair down.
She got perfect grades in school, to please her strict father, who be furious if she got
nothing less than an A. When Sara joined campus, suddenly she had
plenty of freedom from her parents, but still she found herself in another cycle where her
friends made all choices and decisions for her.
She would join them for parties because they insisted, eat pizza because they insisted
on it, and watched movies they liked.
Sara attended all classes and passed her tests because she did not want to disappoint her
father.
Everything worked out well until Sara attended a conference themed “Careers and Decision
making” in her college and realized that she had been living other people’s lives.
It was at that point that Sara sat down and reflected on her life.
For the first time in her life, Sara made a choice for herself.
She took a one-year vacation and quit Architecture against her parents wishes.
Majority of her classmates who genuinely enjoyed architecture also asked her to stay, but Sara
knew that she did not share their enthusiasm.
She decided to explore businesses world during her vacation.
She interned with different companies and explored different aspects of businesses to
see which she enjoyed the most.
After returning home, Sara decided to pursue a course in business management.
However, before making her decision, Sara learnt several lessons along the way which
I am going to share with you in this video Sometimes, the good choices we make may have
negative outcomes.
Therefore, the idea of decision-making is increasing the odds that you make more good
decisions and not to try and avoid making decisions.
This can be achieved by having a decision-making model, especially for big decisions.
Tip 1: Zoom Out The first step Sara took was to separate herself
from the problematic environment and give herself space to observe her life.
Zooming out of a situation enables you to watch yourself as if you are the movie and
observe each of your decisions for what they truly are.
By taking a break from architecture, Sara noticed that she made the decision to be an
architect because her family insisted.
She also realized that her taste in style and food was heavily influenced by her friends.
By zooming out of her situation, Sara realized that she needed to start making her own choices.
Tip 2: Define the Problem Upon observation, Sara realized that the problem
was not any of her friends’ or her parents’ opinions, but her inability to make her choices
and stand by them.
From a tender age, Sara was comfortable with her parents making all her choices only to
realize how dependent she was once she joined college.
By defining her inability to make decisions, Sara could finally work on the problem and
quit worrying.
Take some time and define why you have trouble making decisions for yourself.
Maybe you have controlling parents like Sara.
Maybe you have low self-esteem or perhaps you are too afraid to take risks.
Tip 3: Identify and Weigh the Criteria While rethinking her career, Sara made a list
of all the things she considered crucial to her decision.
For example, she knew that her parents were important because she needed their support.
However, she was also aware of their dominance over her life.
She also wanted to be independent with her choices and she wanted a career she enjoyed.
She once worked under management in her father’s company and was enthusiastic about making
business decisions.
Sara then weighed all the factors and decided which were more important.
In the process she realized that despite wanting her parents support, she needed to be in a
career that she enjoyed even more.
This meant that despite her parents’ feelings towards her choice, Sara was determined to
fight for her choice.
Tip 4: Consult Different People During her one-year vacation, Sara had the
opportunity to interact with different entrepreneurs and employees.
She used the opportunity to listen to the criteria behind their career choices.
After consulting several people, Sara realized that she was not only responsible for her
career choice, but also for her happiness.
Majority of the people who enjoyed their careers made the decision for themselves, and not
for their families or friends.
It may be easy for you to stay in a situation because other people are pleased, but you
need to ask yourself if you are happy with the decision.
Tip 5: List your Alternatives, Weigh Them and Decide
When faced with a problem, it is crucial to list all your alternatives before choosing
one.
For Sara, completing a degree in architecture and excelling as an architect was an option
even if she felt that her parents influenced the choice heavily.
Sara also had the option to quit architecture against her parents’ wishes and pursue business
management and be genuinely happy in the long run.
In the end, Sara realized that she alone had to bear the consequences of her decisions.
Even with all the assurance in the world, Sara was sure that she would not be content
as an architect.
Since her future happiness was more important than her parents’ opinion about her career
choice, Sara quit architecture for business management.
Does the value of your decision outweigh the cost?
If yes, pick the alternative that provides more value.
If not, do not pick that alternative.
Tip 6: Quit Being a Perfectionist Being a perfectionist will prevent from making
your own decisions.
The reality of perfectionism is that you will be weighed down by the thought of making the
wrong decision, which leads to feelings of anxiety when you think you have made the wrong
decision.
Making any decision comes with an amount of risk.
Sara could have chosen to quit pursuing business management because she could fail and her
parents would have the last laugh.
But she was aware of the risk she was taking and did it anyway, of course after making
her calculations.
You need to embrace the risk you are taking and make the decision anyway.
Change your career while you still have time.
Start your business even if you do not have the perfect plan.
Launch your online business and lean more along the way.
You may face surprises and failures along the way.
And at that point, you can change your decision and take a different path.
Avoid being afraid of failure and you will definitely make more choices than you are
making now.
Tip 7: Make Small Decisions a Routine Successful people make routines out of small
choices.
For instance, Mark Zuckerberg is famous for wearing his grey t-shirts and hoodies, even
to important meetings.
Steve Jobs is famous for wearing black turtlenecks while Barrack Obama stated that he cut down
his official dress code to grey or blue suits.
Why did each of these people define their looks?
Because they have numerous important decisions to think about.
While perhaps you cannot show up for work looking like Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs,
you can definitely create routine out of some choices.
You see, making decisions is like exercising a muscle.
After making too many decisions in one day, the muscle tires out, leaving you exhausted
and leading to poor choices.
By creating a routine, you will preserve your mental energy and save it for more important
decisions.
Tip 8: Do not Make Decisions when you are Hungry, Tired or Emotional
Making decisions when you are tired or hungry might lead to rushed choices.
In these states, you are more concerned with doing away with the decision rather than weighing
the risks.
Do not make important decisions when you are tired or sleepy.
Instead, postpone the decision until after you have eaten or rested.
This goes for emotions too.
You are more likely to make wrong and rushed decisions when you’re highly emotional.
Being too anxious, angry, sad, or happy will cloud your judgment and increase your chances
of making a poor decision.
Tip 9: Set a Time Limit Lastly, remember to set a time limit for major
decisions.
You need to create enough time to weigh your options, but not take too long that you end
up postponing the decision entirely.
For instance, Sara set out one year to explore businesses before making her decision.
She took an entire year to make the decision because it gave her enough time to consult
different entrepreneurs, intern in different companies and learn.
However, if you are making a decision on what to wear on a date, you probably don’t need
more than 30 minutes.
Do not prolong the decision for so long that you are unable to focus but also avoid setting
so little time that you end up being anxious.
Set a time limit and have a decision by the deadline.
Thank you guys so much for watching, and I hope you have gained value from watching this
video.
Share your thoughts down below.
And Don’t forget to like, share and subscribe!
I will see you in the next one.