030504b

Making Effective Decisions 

I believe that most of my readers would consider themselves to be very effective decision makers….I too believed I was a very good decision-maker. However, I was shocked to realise differently. 

I was asked to give an example of a bad decision I had made and a good decision I had made recently. Having done so much personal development work and therefore becoming very sophisticated about my decisions, I found it very hard to think of a bad decision I had made. 

Ask yourself the same questions I was asked:

1.     Think of a bad decision you made….how did you make that decision; what was the outcome?

2.     Think of a good decision you made…..how did you make that decision; what was the outcome? 

There have been times in my life when I have lost thousands of pounds by making a decision to invest in something that turned out to be less than lucrative! However, in my mind I don’t categorise those as bad decisions because something good always came out of it even if I lost money….I am sure all you entrepreneurs have similar examples of taking risks and learning from the experience if things didn’t turn out the way you envisaged. 

That’s all very well for BIG goal-related decisions….maybe we are great about making seemingly important decisions related to our long-term goals and aspirations….but what about those decisions that really shape our destiny…for example, our decisions about what to think; what to believe; what to eat? 

Personally, I was shocked to realise that my skills in deciding what to eat & drink, for example, were very poor indeed. I would drink 5 cups of tea a day and always a chocolate bar when I’m travelling on the tube because of the short-term pleasure although I know full well that these decisions didn’t fulfil  my long term goal of remaining healthy and energetic. 

So ask yourself how effective your decision making strategy is about the following:

What are you deciding to think and believe? (your behaviour will be a result of this)

What are you deciding to eat? (your physical and emotional health will depend on this)

What habits are you deciding to form and which are you deciding to break? 

It might seem that these are not the major decisions in your life…they are as major as the underlying foundations of a house! Have fun thinking about the hundreds of decisions you make everyday! 

Subscribe for our
FREE Success Newsletter
for regular life & business psychology ideas that will keep you up to date with current thought in personal development.