Decisions essentially are never simple and when it comes to big decisions like shifting house, quitting a job or ending a relationship may turn you insomniac and anxious, which is extremely normal. At some point in everyone’s life, we have confronted making difficult decision; however, there are few tricks that you can utilize to make the difficult decision-making procedure easier.
You can do some simple things that can help you make the procedure less intimidating. The best one can do is to deal with it from all possible perspectives. Below shared are some easy tricks to enable better and easier decision making.
Tips and Tricks To Help You Making Difficult Decision:
The following mentioned are few tips on making difficult decision and effective decision making strategies.
1. Know what you really want:
You must learn what you really want from the decision’s results. What are your priorities and what your heart wishes for. Perhaps the options you have are not really fulfilling what you want. When all possibilities fail, you need to think who you really are. Make sure the choice you make is what your heart will be happy about.
2. Write down your fears:
Writing down your fears can help you understand your fears better and make better decisions. Start with the decision you have to make, list all that you are worried about and then try to escape from these fears without judging yourself.
3. Restrict the information you absorb:
Sometimes, we come across with an excess of information than our brains can manage. There is a notion that more information can help in making good decisions. But when a person absorbs too much of information from different sources, he will have a tendency to give importance to irrelevant information and overrate its significance.
4. Pretend like you are advising your friend:
Sometimes while making personal decisions, we let emotions surface our opinions, which effects adversely on decision making. When you pretend like you are offering advice to a friend, you actually break free from your emotions and look at the matter with a more different and objective perspective.
5. Call up a friend:
Ask your friend for advice if they had to make similar kind of decisions in their life. Ask and know from them what they had to face or how things worked out. It is good to understand things from a third perspective to not jump into conclusions depending on your biases. Your close friends are aware of your nature and will know the best choices for you.
6. Reverse your theory:
All of us have crux assumption and theory which leads us to make the same kind of life choices time and again. Sometimes it is essential for you to challenge yourself and come out of the comfort zone.
When you think you will have to live in the results of your decisions, it will make you to look harder on the decision and understand what really matters to you. The key for making choices which are difficult, is to step out of your comfort zone.
7. Set up a spreadsheet:
If you make lists or charts, you know that these can really help you to organize everything properly. And it can also be used to make decisions. You can try an easy Excel spreadsheet to help you to assess the bigger picture or simply list the pros and cons for each choice of decisions. Perhaps it will be difficult initially to set up the right format for the spreadsheet which will suit for you and your decisions but with time it will all come to place.
8. Determine who will be affected by your decision:
Understand, your decision can hurt others feelings, for instance, when you decide to move to a new city or end a relationship. However there are people who can be benefited by your decision, like your parents as you are moving closer to them or your own self esteem.
9. Go with your gut instinct:
You must have come across people telling you to go with your gut instinct or listen to your heart, when it comes to decisions. This is a very beneficial advice as your gut will indicate you the best for you. Perhaps a difficult decision can turn you sad, but sadness tied with relief will be the right decision.
10. Recognize the worst case scenario:
For each possible choice, try to identify what is the worst thing that could happen. Driving your decisions to its limits of worst case and considering if all goes wrong can help to make the decision less frightening.
11. Remain calm:
When you are high on emotions, no matter positive or negative, it impacts your ability to make a sensible decision. To handle difficult decision, the key is to remain calm. If you are unable to stay calm, delay the decision making process, until you find tranquil.
12. List out your options:
In the beginning, you might feel that there is only one course of action, which is generally not true. No matter how limited your situations may appear but you can always make a list of alternatives. After you get a full list, thoroughly evaluate them. Ask your close ones like members of your family or friends, if you are having trouble to get alternatives.
13. Become your devil’s advocate:
You have to try to reason against all good grounds that you have to make a favored choice, your decision. In case your argument against something you preferred starts to make a great deal of sense, then you will have a new aspect to consider. If playing devil’s advocate is very easy for you to do, then perhaps you wanted to go with a different choice.
14. Think about the prospects:
The best way to make a decision is to consider how you will be feeling about it in a few years. Consider what you will think when you will reflect on yourself. If you are not impressed with what the long term ramifications of a decision is going to be, perhaps you need to rethink about your choices.
15. Have a contingency plan:
It is better to make a contingency plan to deal with any possible negative result. Even if you are not possibly going to use this plan, just having one can reduce your concerns and feel better equipped to deal with possible worst situation. This will allow you to deal with unforeseen hindrance and challenges with flexibility. You will be able to adapt to unexpected situations that may arise.
16. Reflect on past difficult decisions:
Contemplate how you made past difficult decisions. The situations and problems do not have to be the same, but when you consider that all things worked out well, it feels easy to take a decision which is difficult. Perhaps your course of action can be different but owning up to the decisions will make it easy for you to make it.
17. Take time:
It is better to stay in the tension when neither of the options you have feels right. You can try to slow down the process of decision making. You never know when a completely different option may arise which you had not thought of.
18. Self reflect:
Try to align your life purpose and personal values with the decision. You will understand what is best for you to settle upon. It is actually about knowing and defining yourself. Be honest with yourself so that you follow the direction where you find least resistance.
19. Just stop thinking about it:
Sometimes when you over think, you are stuck and hanging in a mental dilemma. At times it is good to stop yourself from thinking by some distraction. This way you will allow your unconscious mind to work.
20. Take on an emotionally indistinct attitude:
The emotional state of one will affect the way they make decisions. When we are sad, we tend to become more analytical about a situation and when we are happy, we rely on our gut instincts. The best emotional state is to be both happy and sad when making tough decisions. People in emotionally indistinct state turn open minded and receptive to information.
21. Assess if others are holding you back:
Sometimes difficult decisions are those that are significant ones and involve other people. You may fear making a decision as you are afraid of what others might think. You need to value your own happiness and consider yourself as the ultimate manager of your life. Only then you will be able to take a decision, a difficult step for yourself.
22. Ditch the belief that there are perfect decisions:
Looking for perfection in all can create an unrealistic picture of the world, which in turn creates anxiety and disappointment as you gauge your decisions with an unattainable standard. There is no perfect path for a decision to be made and keep in mind that there are drawbacks to every major decision you make.
23. Be vigilant of confirmation bias:
It is a very common bias when taking decisions. It happens when you seek information that confirms your knowledge about a situation. This will let you choose the wrong options for a significant decision. You need to take every minute aspect into consideration and not just find out what you really knew before and step back from learning more about an option.
Finally :
Making difficult decision can take the best of you and can leave you sleepless and worried about the future consequences of the decision. However it is essential to note that almost every decision is reversible and if things are not working out for you, you can always choose a new decision that suits you. You should have immense faith in your capability of making decisions and stay positive so that you are able to contentedly embrace your choices.
