How to make a decision and not make a mistake. How to make the right decisions in life: tips, technique techniques. Try to collect as much useful information as possible.

what to do if you are a leader and you are facing hard choice? Remember, as in a fairy tale: one cannot be pardoned, one cannot be fired, and it is not clear where to put a comma. In this article, we will share several ways to make the right decision. This will help not only businessmen, but also ordinary people who find themselves in a difficult situation.

If you are trapped

Usually making a difficult decision is necessary in a difficult life situation. Stress affects a person in different ways: someone withdraws into himself, someone is worried and does not sleep at night, someone is hysterical and breaks down on loved ones. One thing remains unchanged: a person seems to fall into the trap of his own psyche, often he is not able to make a choice on his own and acts under the influence of emotions or his inner circle. Time shows that impulsive and ill-conceived decisions are ineffective and can ruin your business, career, your relationship, in the end. Remember: all serious decisions are made with a cool head. Therefore, before using the methods described below in practice, do this: turn off your heart and turn on your head. We'll show you how.

There are several ways to calm emotions:

  • short-term - breathe properly. Take 10 deep slow breaths - this will help you calm down;
  • medium-term - imagine that your friend is in such a situation and asks you for advice. What will you tell him? Surely discard all emotions and try to look at the situation from a distance, objectively. So try it;
  • long-term - take a timeout. Just let go of the situation for a while, do other things, and after a week or a month, return to it. So you will kill two birds with one stone: firstly, you will cut off impulsive decisions and will not chop off the shoulder. And secondly, the right decision will ripen in your head on its own, like a ripe fruit - you just need to give it time.

Now that emotions no longer influence your choice, let's talk about eight reliable decision-making methods.

1. Method of pluses and minuses

Use the good old way: take a sheet of paper and a pen, draw the sheet in two. In the left column, write all the pros of the chosen solution, in the right column, respectively, the cons. Do not limit yourself to a few positions: the list should contain 15-20 items. Then calculate which will be more. Profit!

The essence of the methoda: even if you endlessly scroll through the pros and cons in your head, you are unlikely to see the full picture. Psychologists advise making written lists: this helps to organize the accumulated information, visually see the ratio of pluses and minuses, and draw a conclusion based on pure mathematics. Why not?

2. Make habits

This method is suitable if you find it difficult to make a choice in everyday matters. For example, to raise the salary of a new employee or not worth it yet, put on the site or another company. What to eat for dinner, in the end, french fries or fish and vegetables. A difficult decision, of course, but still not a matter of life and death. In this case, it is useful to consciously create habits for yourself and continue to follow them. For example, enter an iron rule: raise the salary of employees only after six months of work in your company. It is cheaper to buy stationery products exclusively from the Skrepka company. There are light and healthy dishes for dinner - you yourself will soon say thank you. Well, with the callback, you get the idea, yes.

The essence of the method: following habits, you will make simple decisions automatically, saving yourself unnecessary thoughts, without wasting precious time on nonsense. But then, when you need to make a truly responsible and important choice, you will be fully equipped.

3. Method "If - then"

This method is suitable for resolving current problems in business, team, personal life. For example, your employee speaks impolitely to customers and does not respond to comments. Question: immediately dismiss him or try to re-educate him? Try using the "if-then" technique. Tell yourself: if he once again allows himself to mistreat the client, you will deprive him of the bonus. If the incident repeats, fire.

The essence of the method:as in the first case, this is the creation of conditional boundaries within which you will act. The burden will immediately fall off the soul, and life will become much easier. And most importantly, you don’t have to waste time thinking and thinking about the fate of a negligent employee.

It was invented by the famous American journalist Susie Welch. The rule is: Before you make a difficult decision, stop and answer three questions:

  • what will you think about it 10 minutes later;
  • How will you feel about your choice in 10 months?
  • What will you say in 10 years?

Let's take an example. Let's take a young man who works as a manager, does not like work, but tolerates it, because money is needed. He dreams of quitting, taking a loan and opening his own business - a small pub, but at the same time he is desperately afraid of burning out and losing everything he has. In general, a classic case when a tit in the hands is preferred to a crane in the sky.

It is difficult for our hero to take the first step - to quit his hated job. Let's say he does it. In ten minutes, he is unlikely to have time to regret his decision. In 10 months, he will have time to rent a room, equip a pub and receive clients. And if it doesn’t work out, he will find a manager’s job anyway, so why regret? Well, in 10 years, this choice is unlikely to have any meaning at all: either the business will continue, or our hero will work in another place - one of the two. It turns out that if you follow the 10/10/10 rule, making a decision no longer becomes such challenging task, because a person clearly understands what awaits him in the future.

The essence of the method: when making a difficult decision, we are usually overwhelmed by emotions: fear, anxiety, or vice versa, joy and excitement. A person feels it right here and now, feelings obscure the prospects for the future before him. Remember, as in Yesenin: “you can’t see a face face to face, a big one is seen at a distance.” As long as the future looks hazy and vague, the decision will be delayed again and again. Making concrete plans, presenting his emotions in detail, a person rationalizes the problem and ceases to be afraid of the unknown - because it becomes simple and understandable.

See also: Three real stories.

5. Decide within 15 minutes

Paradoxical as it may seem, the most important, strategic decisions should be made in 15 minutes. A familiar situation: the company has a serious problem that requires immediate action, but the bottom line is that no one knows the right solution. For example, competitors have done nasty things, and it is not clear what to do: to respond in kind or to get out of the situation with dignity. Or the crisis hit your company, and you are confused: move to a less prestigious place or lay off a dozen employees. How to do it here right choice, and is there one? And you start to pull, unable to make a decision, in the hope that everything will resolve itself.

If you do not know which solution is correct, just imagine that there is no correct answer in this life problem. Give yourself 15 minutes and make any, absolutely any decision. Yes, at first glance it may seem nonsense. But what about planning, but what about testing and verifying solutions? OK, if you can quickly and with a minimum of investments check the correctness of the solution - check it. If this requires months of time and millions of rubles, it is better to abandon this idea and immediately note the time.

The essence of the method: needless to say, if you play for time, nothing is solved: crises do not go away, rental prices do not decrease, and competitors become even more toothy. One unaccepted decision drags others along, the business sags and becomes inefficient. As the saying goes, it is better to do than to regret, than not to do and regret.

6. Go beyond narrow boundaries

The same as what we wrote at the beginning. Execute or pardon, buy a car or not, expand or wait for better times. One of the two, hit or miss, oh, was not! But who said that the problem has only two solutions? Get out of the narrow framework, try to look at the situation wider. It is not necessary to organize a large-scale expansion of production - it is enough to launch a couple of new positions. Instead of an expensive car, you can purchase a more modest option, to apply disciplinary measures to the offending employee for the first time.

The essence of the method: when there are only two solutions, there is more chance to choose the right solution, and many deliberately simplify their lives by dividing the situation into yes and no, black and white. But life is much more diverse: do not be afraid to look her in the eye and accept everything possible options. The solution may be a compromise, a rejection of both extremes in favor of a third, completely unexpected solution, or a successful combination of two options. This often happens when the owner of a small business cannot decide what to do: sit on the phone, deliver orders, or engage only in management activities. Start combining - and then you will see what works best. This will be the best solution to the problem.

There comes a time in every person's life when they some serious decision needs to be made., which can greatly change his fate. As a rule, if a person is aware of the difficulty of his situation, then making such decisions is very difficult.. Life-changing decisions are easy to make when you don't think or when you don't know what. How can a person who understands his situation and is faced with the need to make a difficult decision find support? I invite you to think with me about possible answers to this question.

Give yourself time

For any decision to be made time. And it's good if we are for these purposes allocate it to ourselves. In the old days, the sages used to retire on purpose in order to better focus on some important issue. Now the pace of our life is so great that it becomes more and more difficult to stop for a while and focus on something important for ourselves. And without it, it is very difficult to make a decision. After all, it is so important to think, analyze your situation, find and be disappointed in certain decisions, reach a dead end, and then again look for a way out of it. All this is an integral part of the search and decision making. And if we do not give ourselves time, then decisions can be impulsive and thoughtless, based on a fleeting mood or.

Reliance on feelings

Somehow it turns out that in difficult situations ours. Or there are so many “smart” thoughts that you can get lost in them; or the wind starts to walk in the head and the mind refuses to work. In this case, relying on your own feelings can help. Only it should be relying on momentary emotions(joy, anger, fear, etc.), but deep feelings that live in each of us. It is very easy for someone to hear the voice of these feelings within himself, and he just needs to listen to himself, while someone is completely unaware of how to hear the wave of his feelings in the general noise that envelops the soul. I will share with you the advice of a friend of mine who told me about how he does it. Personally, I really liked his advice.

So, for starters, you will need to find a quiet place where you can retire. Having done this, find something nearby that you can focus your attention on. It is better if it is some kind of shiny object (it is easier to focus on this for a long time). Sit comfortably, rest your eyes on this object, and sitting like this, gradually begin to listen to yourself. To do this, imagine that inside you is emptiness, silence, there is nothing. Listen to this silence and emptiness. Don't let your thoughts distract you from this silence. And if thoughts are distracting, then just note what they are about and let them go. Gradually, something will begin to appear in this emptiness. Notice what comes to the surface. These are the feelings we are looking for. They can appear in the form of images, vague premonitions, sensations in the body. As soon as you notice something in yourself, try to listen to it, and let your experiences unfold.

The whole process can be visualized as follows. You are walking through the forest and you need to go to the road where cars drive. This road is far. You are walking and following the crunch of branches and leaves under your feet, you do not hear in which direction this road is. You stop and freeze in order to listen where the road is. And you don’t hear it right away, but only after some short period of time, when the ear tunes in to silence and hearing becomes sharper. So it is with feelings. You must first stop and stop all inner work, and then listen to where the “sound of your feelings” comes from inside you.

If you manage to hear the voice of your feelings, hear your true desires, then this can give support and a direction in which you would like to move. And if such a general direction becomes clear, then making a decision is much easier (and sometimes it becomes simply self-evident).

Self-deception test

An important guideline in decision making can be a sense of inner harmony. This feeling can appear in the reverse form, in the form the senses if you refuse a decision, or vice versa, internally press on the need to make it. Usually this feeling is similar to some kind of internal discomfort, something gnaws inside and torments, as if you are betraying yourself. It is very important to ask yourself in a difficult situation: “Why am I here? Why should I do this and that? What is the meaning of my decision? If you do not know what decision to make, then it is worth asking yourself about the meaning of the situation in which you are forced to make a decision. Why were you in it? Why did they come to it? By finding the answers to these questions, you can better understand why you are in a decision or choice situation. And then you can ask yourself if you are betraying what you came into this situation for, and yourself at the same time, choosing this or that solution.

Fighting Doubts

It must be said that doubts often arise in the case if the decision is made under duress(internal or external). If the solution is hard-won and internally matured there is no doubt or regret. Well, if the choice has not yet matured internally, but it needs to be made as soon as possible, then confusion and a desire to find the “right” solution appear. In this state, any choice will be wrong. Such a decision will always be followed by a train of regrets and doubts. There is only one way out - to think about what makes you right now (“as soon as possible”) to make a choice and make a decision. More precisely, what do you not like about it? And here it is better to think about what else can be done to remove this internal dissatisfaction without radically changing the situation.

Generally speaking, the best advice here is - don't put pressure on yourself. Don't force yourself to make a decision. Allow yourself not to accept it. Relax. Be like a samurai who, with an unshakable spirit, stands on the edge of a cliff and looks at the blue sky, enjoying its beauty. Take your time and allow yourself to take a closer look at the situation.

Reconciliation with the victim

In any choice, in any decision, you, one way or another, forced to give up something. There is something important and valuable that must be sacrificed when choosing one or another alternative. You should be prepared for this. In order to experience the victim more effectively (so to speak) it is necessary to approach it with the awareness that what exactly are you losing. When you clearly understand what you are giving up, then it is easier for you to survive the consequences of making such a difficult decision.

In order to better understand what you will have to give up, try to complete the following sentence inside yourself: "I'll never…". Saying inside yourself everything that you have to part with, you can, on the one hand, better understand the importance of this or that alternative and, on the other hand, gain courage and readiness to take responsibility for the decision you have made. One way to help you accept this sacrifice is to recognize what you are paying for in terms of the goods you are giving up. It's your choice, and for each life choice we have to pay something and sacrifice something for something more valuable to us.

Final point

To give your decision more weight, you need to "energize him". How to do it? There are two options here. On the one hand, you can take one of the alternatives that you want to refuse, and imagine the worst possible scenario. This can be done by saying to yourself such words: “if I choose this and that, then I will suffer all my life from this and that.” You can do it like this.

Or you can find the positive that is in the choice that you are inclined to, and keep it in your mind, in your imagination, keep it as a goal, as the lighthouse you want to bring your ship to. Can more often remember the good things you strive for especially in moments of doubt and hesitation.

How often do we think: "To know where to fall ...". How sometimes we regret unused opportunities or erroneous actions. Everyone would like to know and understand how to make the right decision that would lead along the right path to the intended goal. However, sometimes we forget the most important thing. About what our

personality is in constant development. Solving new challenges, facing unusual and unusual circumstances, we change. This means that goals, values, priorities also do not stand still. They change with us. That is why it is better to put the question of how to make the right decision for the "here and now", and not looking ahead and even more so.

The author had a chance to talk with many people who sometimes found themselves at difficult crossroads in life. And this is what is typical for those who gave the impression of a self-confident, accomplished person - they did not regret the past! Not even if you had to change your lifestyle, country, field of activity many times. They did not revel in self-pity if they happened to lose all their possessions and start all over again. Therefore, in order to understand how to make the right decision, you need to be clearly aware that a lot depends on us, but not everything. What seems right at a certain moment may turn out to be wrong. That is why more

Inflexible people who find it difficult to reorganize and act according to circumstances suffer from failures the most. And our path is far from always smooth and spacious. Therefore, the first piece of advice: take off the burden of excessive responsibility. A person is arranged in such a way that in any situation he can find both joy and disappointment. Even if you have reached your "goal", it can always seem that "the palace is too small, and the molasses is too sweet."

So which one won't you regret? First of all, try to trust fate and intuition. Very often we hesitate and doubt if there is any, for example, between reason and feelings, between desires and duty. But this situation is also a stimulus for development. And intuition, which we often underestimate or drown out, is what helps to make the right decision. Do not think that this is something supernatural, "a voice from above." It's more like your subconscious is processing the situation in its own way. Our elementary, physiological reactions often tell us where we will feel good and where we will not. For example, if you are looking for a new job, listen to your intuition. If a conversation with a future boss sets you up in a positive way, this is a good start. But if the building itself, the atmosphere reigning there, appearance and the manner of communication of employees cause tension and oppression, if you do not feel comfortable in this place - perhaps this is a warning.

And how to make the right decision in your personal life? The advice is the same. Do not try to reason, plan, think in lofty categories. Just feel the situation, immerse yourself in your feelings. How communication with this or that person will develop is often decided by the first minutes. And if we are comfortable, we feel safe, it means that this relationship has a future. And vice versa, if it is difficult for us to find common topics, if we are constrained, but, for example, the thought has settled in our minds that this is an excellent game, try to trust your intuition. We live with a person, and not with his status, money or position in society.

Another technique will tell you how to learn to make the right decisions. This method can be called "look into the future." The point is to try to imagine as much as possible possible development events,

following your choice. Are you offered a job but don't know whether to take it? Imagine yourself in this place in as much detail and color as possible in a year, two, five. What does your typical working day look like, how do you dress, how do you relax? Do you enjoy going into the office or are you trying to come up with excuses to show up as little as possible? By imagining this, you are subconsciously preparing yourself to make a decision.

And perhaps the most well-known and effective method is to "sleep" with the problem. If you ask yourself a question in the evening before going to bed, in the morning you will receive a ready answer. Your subconscious or intuition will do all the work for you. Sometimes a conversation with an uninterested stranger helps. By speaking out loud all your arguments and doubts, you thereby come to a decision. Good luck to you!

Why, for last years making decisions more difficult? Today in this article we will talk about how to make the right decision when in doubt.

First of all, this is due to nervous tension and excessive workload due to the accelerated pace of modern life. Making difficult decisions requires willpower, good self-control and a rational approach.

How to make the right decision when in doubt?

1. When making decisions, you should consider the situation from several sides. There are four questions that need to be answered before embarking on a particular task:

What happens if the expected event occurs?
- What will not happen if it happens?
- What will happen if this does not happen?
- What will not happen if this does not happen?

This technique is known as Descartes Square. The value of this method lies in the ability to consider the problem from four sides. Usually, when making decisions, most people pay attention only to the first aspect: “What will happen if this happens?”

2. When solving serious problems, you need to think through all the options for your own actions in any outcome of events. In case of failure, it will be easier to cope with failure if alternative solutions are available.

3. You need to be able to separate important problems from trifles. Often emotional people tend to exaggerate the significance of what is happening. Excessive experiences can interfere with rational evaluation.

There are many ways to deal with this task. One of them is the visualization method. You need to mentally move into the future 10 years and imagine how important this issue will be at that moment. This method will help to take a more sober look at the situation.

4. After determining the direction, you need to learn to let go of the situation and live calmly on, without being tormented by regrets about a possible mistake or doubts about the correctness of the choice.

Sometimes the very fact of choosing a path is much more important than how correct this path will turn out to be. Postponing can bring more losses than mistakes. After all, mistakes made bring experience and knowledge.

Many people spend years in a dead end job or a meaningless personal relationship just because they lack the determination to change something and move in a different direction.

In fact, the question is not how to make the right decision when in doubt, but it is much more difficult to take responsibility for its consequences!

Decisiveness is a very important quality, without which it is difficult to achieve success in any area of ​​life. If desired, this quality can be developed in oneself, starting small and moving on to global problems.

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When we, then to some extent we influence our destiny. And, of course, they are interested in making the choice optimal. That is why it is important to use different tools that will help predict the positive and negative consequences of making a decision.

Why do people make bad decisions?

It's not such a simple question when you think about it. You can, of course, get rid of the banal: "People are stupid." But even smart, talented, experienced people make bad decisions. That's why:

  • Lack of time
  • Hope for the only source of information
  • emotional experiences
  • Lots of thoughts about the problem
  • Failure to notice alternatives and new opportunities
  • Lack of knowledge and clarity
  • Underestimating the amount of time it takes to make the right decision
  • Reassessment of one's own skills, knowledge, skills and resources
  • Fear of making the wrong decision

All these barriers prevent you from making the right decision. And if they work in tandem, trio or quartet, then the situation becomes even worse. How to overcome them?

Practice 360 ​​Degree Thinking

Thoughts affect emotions, emotions affect decisions, and decisions affect actions. And every link in this chain can be optimally tuned.

360-degree thinking consists of three essential components that are methods at the same time. They can be used to effectively analyze the situation, after which it becomes easier to make the right decision.

These are the components:

  • A look into the past.
  • Foresight.
  • Insight.

By applying all three of these thinking methods, you view your life from a 360-degree perspective. That is, they work best together.

A look into the past

A look into the past (aka retrospective analysis) will help you critically evaluate your past. This allows you to comprehensively understand a situation that has already happened in order to improve your future decisions.

It's useful because it helps you learn from mistakes, problems, failures, and past successes. As a result of this learning experience, you can adjust your course of action to move forward much faster.

If you don't know or have never done self-reflection, then this is a very good time. Take time to reflect on the decisions you made yesterday. Ask yourself:

  • What did I do yesterday?
  • What decisions did I make?
  • What problems did you encounter?
  • How did I deal with these issues?
  • How did I deal with the problems that arose when I ran into a problem?
  • How do I feel about this?
  • From what other point of view can I look at my yesterday's problems?
  • What can I learn from yesterday's experience?
  • What could I have done differently?
  • What do I need to improve to deal with this problem more effectively next time?

Note that this is not a simple scrolling of negative thoughts (which is what you usually do), but self-reflection. You ask yourself the right questions, give yourself answers, and figure out what you can do better next time. Now you are more aware of what decisions you make and in what state.

From now on, you will begin to relate to your problems and decision-making more consciously, and not on autopilot. Next time there is a great chance to do everything right. In other words, you drew the right conclusions from past experience - this is what all successful people do.

It should be remembered that you should not use the past in order to make decisions in the future. Each situation is unique in its own way. What works today may not work tomorrow. But the process of self-reflection itself is very useful, because it makes you think about your thinking, actions and decisions.

foresight

Foresight is the ability to predict future events, changes, trends and consequences of one's actions. Moreover, it is the ability to explore alternative scenarios that could potentially unfold.

This mindset is useful because it helps you see and predict what might be ahead. Therefore, you will be better able to identify opportunities and much less likely to make mistakes when making decisions.

Foresight works great in tandem with looking to the past. This way you can use the past as a barometer to predict the future and therefore make better decisions.

To develop foresight, you need to learn how to successfully deal with potential threats and identify your needs in advance. This is planning, as well as gathering the necessary resources that will help in the future.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • How will this decision affect the future?
  • How will this decision affect my future decisions?
  • What are the consequences of making this decision?
  • What options will I have after making this decision?
  • What problems will arise?
  • What if everything goes wrong? How will I react?
  • What is my plan B and C?
  • What happens if...?

Foresight is not an exact science. It's more of a game where you try to combine lessons learned from the past with ideas from the present to make the best decision.

Given these two factors, you can generate possible future scenarios that will help you make better decisions.

Insight

Insight is the ability to discern the true nature of a situation. This is the ability to understand one's situation, as well as cause and effect relationships. In other words, it's about gaining an accurate understanding of the people, events, and circumstances of your life.

Insight is often the catalyst for creativity, innovation, and inspiration. This is what brings out the “Eureka!” moments when all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly come together into something understandable. It's like you've stepped out of a fog and now you're finally seeing things in a whole new way that opens up a world of new possibilities.

However, it is worth saying that the ideas that come to your mind are nothing more than an interpretation of reality based on past experience, as well as perceptions and expectations for the future. In short, real insight only comes when you have mastered the other two ways of thinking.

The best entrepreneurs and politicians in the world have this skill. To master it, you need to read a lot, understand people and be curious. But even this is not enough. You need to learn to understand the patterns of your thinking, get rid of cognitive distortions, be in a conscious state and see the essence of things. In a sense, it is about intuition.

Start by becoming more observant of what is going on around and within you. Notice the world around you and ask deep questions about yourself, others, and the circumstances in which you find yourself. For example:

  • Why do I do what I do? What does it matter to me?
  • What do others need? Why is it important to them?
  • What's happening? Why is this happening? What does it mean?
  • What is the problem? How did it become a problem? Why is it still a problem?
  • Why are the circumstances the way they are and not others?
  • How did it happen and why does it matter?
  • What is the value of knowing this? How does this knowledge change my point of view?
  • What is another way to look at this situation? Why is it important?
  • Why did this happen? What led to this? What happened before? Is there a connection?
  • How are these two events related? Why are they connected in this way?
  • How was it done? Who did it? Could it be otherwise?

If you start asking these and similar questions you will become very attentive and observant. Tyrion Lannister, if you will, who often asked himself what others needed and carefully analyzed the events of his life and the world around him.

You will learn to understand why things are the way they are and that they could potentially be different. In fact, you cease to be a passive observer. As a result, you begin to think critically about yourself, about others, and about the circumstances with which you are dealing. All this stimulates the emergence of deeper thoughts, allowing you to draw conclusions and situations that you have never considered before. It opens up new levels of understanding.

There are situations when the solution lies on the surface, you just need to lend a hand. Others are complex and consist of many factors. To make the right decision, you need to use 360-degree thinking, considering the problem from all sides. It will not work right away, but certain results will be visible after the first application of this technique.

Practice Step by Step Decision Making

Step One: Get Clear Clarity About What You Want

Your first step is to clearly understand your desired outcome and identify the resources needed to achieve that outcome. Ask yourself:

  • What is my desired result?
  • What specifically would I like to achieve?
  • What might be required to achieve this result?
  • How should I prioritize my efforts?

Understanding what result you want to achieve is important because it (understanding) helps to direct all efforts towards achieving one goal. Then you can make better decisions.

Step Two: Take Action to Achieve Your Desired Result

When you don't quite understand how to get to your desired destination, it's easy to panic. However, what matters is that you take the first step.

You only need to take one step, which will move you a little closer to the desired result. There is probably still a lot of fog ahead, but it is clear that this action is necessary. For example, if you're looking to buy a car and are completely overwhelmed by the number of options, the first step might be to read specialized car forums. By learning to understand the topic, you can make a more informed decision.

In any difficult decision There are always a few things to start with. At some point, you will move forward and the next steps will become more obvious.

Step Three: Track Your Results

You must always be vigilant about what works and what doesn't work. There is no reason to waste precious time on inefficient tools.

However, to start measuring progress, you need to understand what exactly you will measure. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • How do I know that I'm moving in the right direction?
  • How exactly will I measure my progress?
  • How will I know that I have reached my goal?

The more clarity about where you are at, the better the solution.

Step Four: Stay Flexible When Making Decisions

The action plan will always be reworked, because it is impossible to predict all the factors in this absurd world. Therefore, you must be flexible in your decisions and actions at all times. Keep your long-term goals in mind at all times and everywhere to stay on course.

Ask yourself:

  • What results do I want to achieve?
  • What am I doing now?
  • Does my current action bring me closer to results?
  • This is the most The best way doing so?
  • What should I change to get better results?

Don't freak out if things don't go as planned. This is fine. Find out why you veered off course, be curious, not annoyed. With the curiosity of a scientist, ask yourself questions and look for optimal solutions.

Complete decision making process

The previous paragraph was rather preparatory and theoretical. Here we will talk about the full decision-making process. It will require much more time, which means that it needs to be used if the problem you are facing is really important.

Step One: Get Clarity

Let's first understand the importance of the decision you are about to make. Ask yourself:

  • What are the options?
  • What is the ideal decision I should make?
  • Why is this decision so important?
  • How will it help me?
  • How important is this decision for my loved ones?
  • Can it change my life?
  • Do other people understand the importance of this decision?

It is important to clearly understand the importance of the decision you are about to make, because it will help determine how much effort and time you will put in.

Step Two: Gather the Facts and Explore the Options

Sometimes a decision requires a collection a large number information. And, if it is important to you, then you need to allocate enough time for this.

Once you have collected all the information you need, take the time to review possible ways moving forward. Ask yourself:

  • What decision can I make?
  • What actions can I take?
  • What options are there?
  • What will I need?

For one decision, you may need money, help from other people, and a lot of time. For others, it takes a lot of work and patience. What will be best for you?

It's time to look at the pros and cons of each solution. Ask yourself:

  • What are the benefits of this course of action?
  • What are the disadvantages?
  • What are the advantages of one option over the other?

As you ask yourself these questions, think about the sacrifices you will have to make in the first and second cases. They may not be obvious: sometimes you can ruin relationships with others by making a decision that does not affect them.

It all basically comes down to opportunity cost. By taking one course of action, you may not be able to take another, and there may be advantages and disadvantages to different options.

Step Four: Determine the Worst Case

Remember Murphy's Law: "If something bad can happen, it will happen." Take it into account whenever you make a decision.

Ask yourself, “What is the worst that could happen if I make this decision. How do I deal with the consequences?"

Of course, the worst-case scenario may not always happen. But you need to be ready for it. At least psychologically. After weighing all the pros and cons, finding out what the worst-case scenarios are waiting for you, make a decision. But remember that it must be flexible: if something goes wrong, you can quickly rebuild and update your plan of action.

Step Five: Learn From Your Experience

You have made a decision and now you are either reaping the rewards of your efforts or regretting your mistakes. Either way, it's all an experience to be appreciated. Ask yourself:

  • What have I learned from this experience?
  • What have I learned from how I make decisions?
  • Was this decision in complete harmony with my personality and my values?
  • Have I achieved the desired result?
  • Did I adjust my actions when I ran into problems?

There are many questions you could ask yourself. So please don't limit yourself to just these. Think of others you could ask, especially after mistakes, defeats, or failures.

We wish you good luck!