Being Decisive

Written By Colēgia

Making decisions can feel tough at times given that there are a lot of options to sort through. Our emotions also play a big role in this as well since they determine how likely we are to follow through with things. Being decisive doesn't have to be difficult though and we want to look at some ways to make that easier for us.

Narrow Your Options

Analysis paralysis is oftentimes one of the biggest hurdles to overcome with decision-making since there can be a lot to think about. It's good to do research when it comes to major decisions since it can give us a more informed point of view but we need to consider how much time we're spending on that. If we're doing too much research we may feel as if there's too much to think about. It could also present us with too many choices as well. A good approach is to narrow your options so that you have 2 or 3 things max to consider. The reason for this is that it better allows you to prioritize what you specifically want and value in the decision-making process. For example, looking at a top 10 list for a laptop you'd want for school can streamline the process of your budget and features to look for.

“Analysis paralysis is oftentimes one of the biggest hurdles to overcome with decision-making since there can be a lot to think about.”

Work On Small Decisions First

Small habits eventually build up into larger ones given enough time and we want to make sure that we're doing things the right way. Decisiveness takes time to work on since it effectively relies on past decision-making to give us the foundation we need for later. Heuristics are a good example of this and they're effectively mental shortcuts that we use to help us make faster problem solving. They're necessary since we realistically can't give every choice the same amount of weight given time constraints. The small decisions we make throughout the day help us swiftly figure out what to do. Things such as what we wear on a day or what to eat for breakfast fall under this since we only need a bit of mindfulness to get good results out of them.

“Small habits eventually build up into larger ones given enough time and we want to make sure that we're doing things the right way.”

Trust Your Judgment

As much as we want to always make the best decisions, sometimes we have to trust our best judgment in the face of the unknown. We can't always know what the result of something will be unless we put ourselves in that situation. The good thing about it is that we can use it as an opportunity to learn more about ourselves as well. Our judgment is based on a combination of our experiences and our personality and we need to develop both in order to reach the right middle ground. Being decisive means being able to look at things while being considerate of the rational and emotional parts of our minds. Both of these do matter and we want to be in a state of harmony since that leads to the greatest sense of contentment.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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