"To make a decision, all you need is authority. To make a good decision, you also need knowledge, experience, and insight.”
Barbra Streisand made the good decision of accepting the offer for “Funny Girl”. The stunning beauty won an Oscar Award for this film. Beside this, she had the delightful experience of working with the late William Wyler. She says he was a wonderful director to work with.
Whether it is a big or a small decision, many people become the victim of indecisiveness. If you are one of them, there is nothing peculiar in it.
Yahoo has always been making bad decisions. The journey of bad decisions began with showing no interest in buying or licensing Google technology in 1998.
Designing a large sized Titanic was a bad decision a century ago. It did not just result in financial loss, but in massive loss of human life too.
You can overcome indecisiveness by taking a few small positive steps in your life. They say it is never too late. The first and foremost step is to be aware of the drawbacks of indecisiveness. The opportunities that lead to triumph come once in awhile. Remember that over-thinking will lead you nowhere, but practical steps must lead somewhere.
Often any decision, even a bad decision, is better than no decision.
You can definitely have whatever you wish! Take decisions like the astute Warren Buffet. He says he is not keen on buying social media sites because of their fickle income.
When he was 17 years old in 1947, he used to buy pinball machines along with his friend. Then they sold them to the nearby barbers’ shop. He used to earn $50 per week from this business. We all know that he is one of the most successful investors in the world today. As somebody who knows investing in and out, he advises everyone to invest for the long term.
Making quick decisions and being impulsive does not make one a good decision-maker. A good decision is a swift one but with good amount of thinking. Impulsive people make decisions without thinking, which may not turn out to be correct always.
It is in your moments of indecision that your dreams are destroyed.
A new study of neuro-economics from University of Zurich, Switzerland declared an interesting reason behind being indecisive. It says that the communication strength between the various regions of brain orders whether a person is indecisive or not.
Indecisiveness is not an incurable condition. Following the below mentioned five strategies should bring about a change.
Never underestimate the power of a good decision.1. Practice decision-making to get good at it
Do not let others control over your life. It is your life; you should decide whatever’s best for you.
Robert De Niro has starred in more than 100 films so far. He has won an Academy Award. On making decisions, he says that you should listen to a maximum number of people. But in the end, make your own decision about what you want to do.
We can’t expect others’ support all the time. So, depend on yourself for making decisions for yourself.
Probably, when nobody is around you, you may have to make a prompt decision. Do not regret later.
Always remember that nobody is a born decision-maker. They say practice makes a man perfect. You may make the bad decision once, twice or thrice, but it does not mean you will do that always.
David Choe painted the offices of a startup in Palo Alto, CA. The company offered him two options. He could take a few thousand dollars or take equal shares for his job done. He did not get an idea what to do and found it rather odd. He accepted the offer of equivalent shares.
He had to wait for almost seven years to cash his shares. The startup is better known today as “Facebook”. When he cashed his shares, he received $200 million.
Pro Tip: Either do not make a decision or once you make a decision, stick with it. You understand your struggles better than others and what matters for you and what does not. Do not worry about the opposition you might face. In general, people oppose good decisions.
Have priorities in life. Give time to the decisions according to their impact on your life. Take the least time for thinking about the issues that don’t matter that much to you. For the issues that matter to you somewhat more, take a bit more time to make the decisions relevant to them, and so on. You get the drift.
2. Be Aware of Yourself!
Give yourself some time. Explore yourself.
Mr. Michael Comyn says managing your own emotions is probably a big challenge you have. self-awareness and decision-making. Getting your empathy balance is absolutely right.
Be aware of your beliefs. It will help you to make your decision consonant with what you think is right. Be conscious of your weaknesses as well as strengths. This will help you decide where you can excel and where you will be left wanting for help.
Are you sure you acknowledge your tastes, likes or dislikes? Knowing them assists you to make a good decision about what you want in life.
Be aware of your surroundings. Knowing every detail about the present situation can play a vital role in enhancing your decision-making skill. You get an idea whether your decision is appropriate for this time and place or not.
When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.
Your inspirations can also help you in making a decision about what you want to do. For example, Roy Lichtenstein painted the Bedroom at Arles. It is an inspiration of Bedroom at Arles painted by Vincent van Gogh.
3. Go with Your Gut Feeling
Mathew Toren is a Serial Entrepreneur. In his article “The Scientific Reason You Should Trust Your Gut”, he says that trusting your gut is even a scientific advice. He has mentioned that our memory has two types i.e. explicit and implicit. When you study for a test to pass it with excellent marks; you will exercise your explicit memory. When you hear a song and its lyrics come in your mind, it is due to implicit memory. The implicit memory informs you that touching the hot stove is not good for you.
Self-awareness can help you to make many decisions, but not always. That is when you can go with your gut to make decisions.
The inspiring Abraham Hicks says when something feels OFF, it is.
Experience is the real teacher in the life. The more experienced you are; the more your gut chooses a good decision. We do gain experience with age, but more so by attempting something new. Thus, do not assume if you are young, you will not make a good decision.
The key factor is that you trust your gut feeling. The more you trust it, the more beneficial results it will give you.
Matt Damon tied the knot with Luciana Barroso in 2005. She was a bartender in Miami. He trusted his gut feeling. He did not care for people’s opinions and went ahead with what he felt was right. This is a great example of correctly trusting your instincts.
4. Let Go Of the Little Things
Do not be an over-thinker. Although thinking is a good habit, but thinking about all matters is not a good idea. Save some time for making decisions about important professional and personal life matters.
If you eat an unhealthy dinner someday, it will not affect your life. But a bad decision in your professional or personal life can have a dreadful effect.
Do not waste your time deciding the T-shirt for your black jeans next time. You look good with your all T-shirts. The fact is that no one cares how you are looking, as everyone is worried about their own looks.
Gerd Gigerenzer, psychologist says “take the best”. Follow this rule.
Make priorities in your life. You should concentrate on setting goals for your life. Goals for a balanced professional and personal life.
Value your relationships and think about what decisions you make in regard to people who you interact with - be it your family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or strangers. They are the ones who make life living, for it is nothing without human interaction. Nurture your relationships with utmost care, so that you make correct decisions more often that not in this respect.
As goes your career and professional life, it requires serious thought and consideration, something that everybody in our age does not give.
The reason more is that trivial things present themselves and we tend to devote our time and energy to them. What we need to have is a filter that distinguishes the significant things from things that are not, and it is us who has to construct that filter.
5. It is Good to Make Bad Decisions Sometimes
Realize that nobody makes good decisions 10 times out of 10. If time proves your decision to be good, move forward. If time proved your decision bad, still, move forward. The journey of learning should never stop.
A bad decision must not stop you to make decisions in the future.
A doctor does not change his career if he gives the wrong medicine to someone. He becomes more careful afterwards.
Malcolm Turnbull, Australian Prime Minister made a bad decision. He refused to nominate Kevin Rudd, the former Australian Prime Minister for the UN secretary general position.
If you also make bad decisions, there is no need to get disappointed.
Jim Camp has been coaching since last 25 years.
Unnecessary fear of a bad decision is a major stumbling block to good decisions.
Maybe, you are wondering why we make bad decisions.
Dan Gilbert is the chairman and founder of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans Inc. He says people make bad decisions because they are impatient. They prefer things now over later e.g. they will like to get $50 now rather than $60 after a month.
Moreover, he said when people purchase, they compare but when they spend, they do not compare. He shared a quote of Plato, the philosopher:
“What space is to size, time is to value.”
Even a bad decision opens the door of opportunity sometimes. For instance, if you trust someone who is likely to ditch you, you might suffer. But you learn for the next time and you don’t trust every person with closed eyes. You may be regretting wasting your past three hours on a social media networking site. Suddenly, a person meets you. Thereupon, both of you become best friends.
Conclusion
Jean-Paul Sartre decreed that man is condemned to be free. It is up to you how you want to live. A happy life with good decisions or a miserable life with bad decisions.
Be practical!
Mr. Miyagi was a fictional Karate Master. In his drama film "The Karate Kid", he said:
“Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk good side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later… you get squish just like grape.”
The key is to be headed somewhere. It is not enough to be neutral and undecided about everything.
As we saw, sometimes decisions nobody else sees fit lead to wondrous things.
Bonnie Brown did not know that each of her shares on Google would be around her weekly salary today.
Have you considered that if you don’t make waves, nobody including you will know that you are alive?
One of the best decisions is to do not let the human inside you die. Try and bring about a good and positive change in your life and in the lives of those around you. Only good decisions will help you get there. We always have a choice between the right thing and the wrong thing. But sitting idle and choosing neither should never be a choice.
Now, do you think you will make a good decision that will influence your life after two decades too?
