Decisions can be hard. But they are rarely life-threatening.
There are big decisions, such as deciding how you will live. Examples for this are getting married, having kids, investing in starting a business, etc. They can be difficult to make if you aren’t 100% sure if you are making the right decision, or they feel right at the time, and you are willing to take that chance, because you know it is something you want to do.
There are also small decisions. Deciding what you are going to wear. What you are going to eat for lunch. Most of these are inconsequential, and take little effort to make. And if any of them turn out to be bad decisions, they won’t have any real impact on your life in the long run.
Big decisions need to be made though if you want to move the needle on your life. Without any real decisions, you would just stay stagnant and not progress at all. So they have to be made, but anxiety can set in. After all, what if you make the wrong decision about something important?
Here a few thoughts about decision making:
Is the decision reversible?
If it is, then you can make it. You want to start a craft brewery? You are going to get a bunch of money together and invest in all of the equipment and products for making beer. You will need to commit to a lease, and really jump in for the long haul. This is not immediately reversible once the money is invested.
However, what if you started really small? Just brewing small batches in your garage? What if after 3 months, you decide that you really just like the taste of beer, and are not really into making it? No problem, you can just stop. Yes, you make have some equipment, but you should be able to sell if off easily enough.
Reversible decisions should not be accompanied with anxiety, as you can just simply stop. Yes, you may incur a bit of cost during the experience, but you will have learned the valuable lesson that you actually didn’t want what you thought you did. You can let go of that idea and just go try the next thing.
Anxiety over loss of money is similar to being desperate for a date. When you come off a desperate, you actually repel other people. They get creeped out, because you are so tense about making any mistakes, so you come off stiff. The same goes for money. If you are constantly worried about losing it, you won’t spend any of it to better your situation by investing in yourself.
Don’t overthink it. If you can cut and run, you’ll be fine.
Regret minimization
Short and sweet idea from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. Regarding the thing you are deciding on doing. Will you regret it when you are 80 years old that you didn’t make that decision? If you think you will, then go for it. Regret is pure poison that will eat away at you, and it’s far worse than failure. Do the thing. If you fail, then you fail. But you will have learned much more about yourself, build your confidence up, and mostly, will not have any regrets.
Decision matrix
When making a difficult decision, you can make a table, with the criteria on the left hand side, and options as the columns. You can assign a numbered weight to each criteria, then assign that weighted score to each option.
Here is an example of a decision matrix for buying a new vehicle:
The purchase cost is a major factor, but engine power is less of a factor. With the example above, we can see that vehicle B is the vehicle that should be purchased, as it meets the most criteria.
Zero based thinking
If you are currently involved in something, and you are wondering if you should continue on with it, or just stop, you can apply a concept from Brian Tracy called zero based thinking to decide what to do. The basic idea is that if you knew what you currently now know, would you still make the same decision? If you wouldn’t, then it is time to quit.
A good example would be if you were building a business and you have invested a lot of time and effort into it. The business is either under performing, is not what you thought it would be, or you just simply hate it and want to stop working on it. Knowing what you know now about the business, think back to the time when you first created the business. Would you still create it? If you would not, then it is time to quit and cut your losses. Yes, you will lose some things. But what is the alternative? Stay and lose more money and time? I don’t think so. You’d be totally miserable.
Use this when cutting and running seems like an option.
Working backwards
If you have a decision that has several different criteria, you can work backwards from a single priority to make THE decision.
For example: Selecting a pair of headphones.
– Which pair sounds the best
– Which are the most economical
– Which are the most comfortable
– Which are the most durable
– Which has the best noise cancelling
Your priority might be: Which headphones are the most comfortable?
The other criteria do matter, but not at much as comfort. Comfort is the #1 priority.
If one pair is clearly more comfortable than the rest, then that pair of headphones is the correct choice.
Be aware that it is harder to make decisions the older you are
If you are 12, you probably don’t make any life altering decisions. Making decisions is easy when you are young.
However, at 45, it is way more difficult. You have the history of your decision-making life to contend with. If you’ve made enough sketchy decisions, you will have more anxiety over making new decisions.
The only way to contend with this, is just to face it head on. Just be aware of the difficulty. So, if you’re still young, make those important decisions as early as possible. If you are older, make those decisions that you need to make anyway, but just be aware of the impending anxiety, and do your best to work through it. Practice doing this will make it easier. Remember that our decisions don’t define who we are.
Commitment
Don’t delay on making important decisions. Make them, then COMMIT to them. I actually believe that it is the commitment to our decisions that is the problem. If you think about it, the actual decision takes mere seconds. It’s the follow through afterward that is the hard part. I can decide to adhere to a rigid gym schedule in 5 seconds. Commitment will take the rest of my life. Deciding to marry someone can take seconds (I do), but it’s the commitment required for married life that is the important part.
Decide quickly
If you dwell on a decision, it just sits there not being make. It’s like a paper jam in a printer, where the print jobs send to the printer back up. Other important things that require decision making power don;t get addressed because you are stuck on one decision.
Here is an example of this:
- You can’t decide what kind of online business to start.
- You could try eCommerce, affiliate marketing, or blogging.
- You let valuable time go by. Nothing is getting done.
- Things in the marketplace change. Certain opportunities go by.
- You get decision fatigue, and just give up entirely. You don’t pursue any of there.
Now here is a more positive view:
- You decide in a day that eCommerce is what you will try. You heard about it briefly, but commit to getting involved. Decision was made quickly. You can always quit after 3 months if it doesn’t work out for any reason.
- You do it for 3 months. You make some headway with it. You are making money with it, but decide that it’s not really for you. However, you really like the blogging that you were doing on your store to get organic traffic.
- You start a blog instead. You write some posts and advertise some products.
- You enjoy this much more, so you keep doing it. It doesn’t feel like work. You enjoy taking your laptop to places, and typing away.
- 6 months go by, you have a really high quality site. You get lots of traffic. People really engage with your content. You have incorporated affiliate marketing into your blog. It becomes a success.
One quick decision led to a completely new cubicle-free way of life in the second scenario. In the first scenario, the person is stuck in a job they may no longer enjoy, and will have to find their happiness outside of their work.
Recognize decision fatigue
We have a short supply of decision making ability during the day. Therefore, it is recommended to make important decisions in the morning, before it is depleted. Now, everyone is different, but recognize that if you are having difficulty making decisions, if you are attempting to do them in the later hours, then perhaps attempt making them in the morning. Schedule the time. Write the decision choices down on a sheet of paper side by side as two columns. Weigh out the pros and cons for each.
The less decisions you can make before an important decision, the better.
Decisions toward goals
I’m a big believer that systems trump goals, but goals are really useful when it comes to making decisions. If you have clear goals, and the systems in place that are in line with them, then essentially any decision that contributes the goal in some way, shape or form, is correct.
If you have a goal to get in shape, then as long as your food decisions are healthy, you are good.
If you have a goal to start an online business, then it doesn’t matter which type you start. You don;t have to waste time figuring out if they are viable or not. They all work. Just try one and see if it YOU can make it work. Whether you create a campaign, write a blog post, create a video, it doesn’t matter. If they all contribute to the overarching goal of creating an online business, you are fine. You can switch it up any time.
Final thought:
Small decisions should be easy because there isn’t a lot invested in them. Just make them and move on. As for larger decisions, make them without regrets so you can move forward. Put things in perspective – they (probably) won’t kill you. If it is reversible, then you really don’t have much to lose. If they aren’t reversible, is this something you will regret if you don’t do it? Can you afford that regret instead of making the decision?