Making the Best Possible Decision…
Making the best decision isn’t easy, decisions can either build or destroy your future, the late Stephen R. Covey said, “You are not a product of your circumstances. You are the product of your decisions.”
It isn’t easy to make a good decision, to make a good one, you have to recognize the situation at hand, rationally thinking about its cost and consequences, taking into consideration having other options and alternatives to it.
Some decisions can be made on the spot, such as routine ones that you make without giving them much thought. Challenging and difficult decisions require, however more thoughts and considerations, we’re talking about situations such as:
Uncertainty – Many of the facts may be unknown.
Complexity – There can be many, related factors to consider.
High-risk consequences – The impact of the decision may be significant.
Options- There may be various alternatives, each with its own set of uncertainties and consequences.
Interpersonal issues – You need to predict how different people will react to your decision.
It’s always advised to pair decision making with problem solving skills when faced with difficult and complex decisions in challenging situations.
Here’s a handy 7 Steps guide to help you weighing your options and make a better decision
- Think about your goals and values.
if you don’t know what you want, you might end up making bad decisions, Don’t make decisions built on a wrong problem and different from your values and what you value, having clear values can make tough decisions easier. Before you switch jobs, ask yourself: Do you want a different career? Or you just want a different boss?
- Set your standards and Eliminating unnecessary choices.
Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many choices might spoil the decision, If you want to buy a new tablet , stick to the features you’ll actually use. Any tablet that has the features you need would be good enough for you; ignore anything fancier and save yourself unnecessarily decision conflicts.
- Never mind about finding the “best.”
The deference between finding something and finding the best of that thing has a huge toll on decision making, refer to the first role mentioned above, and know that how good you feel about any decisions is usually more important than how good they are objectively. Always Think of good alternatives and do Select the best solution.
- Be aware of prejudices.
Decision Making might be influenced by prejudice, this narrows the choices and might element the good ones, they can lead smart people to make stupid decisions, choosing to have higher the wrong person just because he’s well dressed. We hate to lose more than liking to win, that’s why many of us don’t invest and accept having just a safe paycheck, We remember examples more than facts, that’s why plane crashes stick in our heads more than the real statistics on aviation safety. Prejudice is hard to detect but keeping these biases in mind might help you detect it and decide clearly. Explore your options, and don’t limit your choices to just one.
- Don’t rush your decision
Learn to differentiate between an impulse and a smart decision. Humans tend to make worse choices when they’re in a bad mood or under a lot of stress. When facing a difficult decision, be sensible , gather any information you need, and then take a break, sleep on the topic, go for a walk, take a nap or Spend some time with friends or do some activities that’s not related to the topic . The decision you make afterward would at least be reasonable.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Some decisions aren’t worth getting
You make a DECISION when You have more than one option and these options can have an effect on the outcome. Daily , we make lots of simple choices such as what to wear or what to cook for dinner, these simple decisions aren’t worth sweat the small stuff on them, whenever its possible, remove the need to make such decisions by setting headline rules for yourself, having fixed preset rules will eliminate struggling to make a final say about a decision, or example Assertively choose to go to the gym every other day, in this way you don’t have to struggle in deciding If you should go or not.
- Do a post-decision analysis.
After every decision you make Examine the situation in detail and ask yourself how you felt afterward? how did it effect you? and what experience you can relate in the future. Always try to Evaluate your next plan beforehand.
Great leaders are the ones known to make the best decisions in even the biggest challenging circumstances. their experience and serenity under pressure makes their choices wise, they know that different emotions has different effects on decisions, (Emotions and logic paired together will help you making good decisions), they create constructive environment, and they talk about their decision with trusted reliable persons and seek their advice before taking any actions
you too can learn from them, look at the situation and weigh the options with a rational mind. It may take some time to master decision-making skills, but it continues getting better by time.
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