In our daily lives, we have to make decisions now and then. For many, every single day is like fighting for survival to cope with pressures and stress at different levels to get through the day. Facing everyday challenges in our personal life involves making effective decisions.
We make strategies and decisions that could be to come out of financial debts, land a job, kick bad habits, fight to save relationships/marriage, and so on. Everybody tries to decide the best course of action to fulfill their goals.
All those decisions do not guarantee good decisions. Sometimes, we end up with poor decisions. Still, we rise again and face the reality. After all, poor decisions are not necessarily bad. Think of poor decisions as a catalyst to discover new ideas to strengthen your future decision-making.
At times, when you try to decide, you’ll have lingering self-doubts. But if you keep pushing yourself, those doubts will give way to hope to move toward your goal.
This post will take you through practical insight into how to make effective decision-making processes in your personal life.
Contents
Look for Inspiration to Make Effective Decisions
When we’re trying to decide, often, we look up internet resources to get different perspectives. We also seek opinions from people we trust to help in our decision-making. Normally, this is what we do when we cannot make up our minds.
Take a Different Approach
In most situations, these strategies work. Still, if you’re stuck on what to decide, doing the reverse of what you would habitually do might lead you to a problem-solving idea.
Talk to someone you have not been in touch with for some time about something entirely different other than your problem. A simple conversation may not ease your problem, but you’ll feel refreshed and relaxed. You never know, out of the blue, something might strike your mind about a workable solution to your problem, although you didn’t consciously keep thinking about it.
Visit a friend or a relative. The idea is to change the scene even if temporarily away from your stressful environment and familiar mental state. Spending considerable time trying to decide in the same place tends to get mental fog.
Going to a different place could possibly gain new insights into your problem. You might also feel the surge of renewed energy and be emboldened to pursue your goal. Who knows, you might come up with the best decision while you’re away from home.
Act On Your Decision
Make an informed decision after gathering relevant information to back up your choice. If you are planning on doing or learning something new, instead of your usual perspective, try thinking from the critic’s point of view about the likely scenario outcome.
Once you decide what to do, act on your decision. Having a lingering doubt about your decision will only hold you back and you may lose an opportunity. Your decision may not be foolproof, but unless you take action, you’ll never know how things will be. It’s better to make a mistake and learn from it than to wait for a perfect decision.
Procrastinating can be a barrier to living a contented life. Having said that, I used to be a procrastinator for a long time. I would wait until the pressure builds up forcing me to make choices. It’s true, an old habit dies hard. It rears its head occasionally and I keep fighting it.
When things seem to go smoothly in my life, I get lazy and enjoy the slow pace moments. But blissful moments don’t last long. Well, by putting off a decision, we may miss some good opportunities in life.
Prioritize and Strike a Balance
The decision involves both problem and opportunity. We do not always find opportunities in life, but problems are part of our lives. Recognizing how to deal with each aspect is the first step toward making effective decisions in personal life. The next step is about setting personal goals and making priorities. Whether it is about solving a problem or making the most out of the opportunity requires a time frame and weighing options to gain the possible best outcome.
Our emotions do not remain static. For example, you might be happy in the morning, and later in the day, something could disturb your peace of mind. Well, we can’t say what time is best to decide because that depends on the circumstances. Some decisions require immediate attention no matter what your day is like. On some days, we can’t avoid certain circumstances that compel us to decide on the spot.
Recondition Your Mind for Effective Decision-making
Despite occasional urgency and pressure throwing our life out of normal routine, the simple rule to follow to avoid chaotic decision-making is planning. Recondition your mind with the habit of prioritizing what needs to deal with first, and plan and think about the consequences of how your decision and actions might affect your life.
Effective Decisions Need Sound Health
As it can happen, you are sure about the solid decision taken and the likely scenario outcome. But having decided doesn’t end there. The implementation part is crucial to see through your goal with your active engagement. Types of decisions vary, but whatever you do, you also need sound health to focus on the goal and concentrate on the work at hand.
Years ago, I was asked to present a paper at a seminar on short notice. In that short time, I had to do some research to gather relevant information to prepare for my seminar paper. As I kept working on my presentation, the work stretched past midnight well into the morning on the scheduled day of the seminar. I didn’t get time to sleep before the seminar proceedings.
When the time came for my presentation, I could no longer focus on my topic. Although I had reasonably prepared well for the talk, I felt disoriented in my thoughts flow. It was a total disaster from the beginning. So, what lesson did I learn from that experience?
- Lesson Number One
You should never compromise on a good rest. If you have important engagements or plans for the next day, organize the task early and focus on taking good rest.
- Lesson Number Two
You should set limits even while you try to do your best. In my case, while I tried to prepare a great presentation, I overlooked the importance of rest and the consequence was a poor performance that messed up the very purpose of my entire hard work.
So how did my failed seminar presentation fit into the decision-making? It is about having a balance between work and your health, both physically and mentally. The point is, you don’t want to neglect your health when you’re making efforts to make effective decisions in your personal life.
Sometimes, pressure to make a critical decision is good for you. When we have a sense of urgency, we give our full concentration to addressing the issue than what we do during our normal days. But the flip side of working under stress depletes our energy and our thinking ability slows down.
Keep an Open Mind
Having alternatives make our life easier in anything we do or plan. When you have several alternatives to choose from, you feel confident and eager to take on the challenge. If Plan A doesn’t work, you can fall back on Plan B. With options, you will have the means to keep trying available plans until you’re sure which one will work to your satisfaction.
For some people, being adept at decision-making may not come naturally, but one can consciously strive to become a skilled decision-maker. The ability to look through the problems and the probable outcome can help to make better decisions. This way, you will feel more in control of your life and see your goals with a clear vision rather than unpredictable life challenges.
Explore Options for Effective Decisions
Just don’t persist with one option, you need to explore alternatives. Make efforts to break free from habitual thinking patterns. Skip your typical routine and try to do something different. When you cannot concentrate, for a change, simply look at the sky, trees, flowers, or people in the street.
There’s no need to keep thinking for 24 hours looking for the best decision. If you take a break and do something else, the magic thought could just pop into your head when you least expect it.
At times, we face several challenges simultaneously. Attempting to deal with issues all at one go may not be a sensible decision. Instead, work with a single determined focus on each issue at a time. Taking on all challenges can overwhelm you, preventing you from making effective decisions in your personal life. Instead, there’s a possibility that working on a particular problem may give you hints about solutions to other problems.
Sometimes, our mind works in different ways as opposed to what we consciously try to do. So keep an open mind and look for clues and signals from your intuitive mind. When we stopped trying too hard, we realize the solution has been lingering just within our reach.
Learn new skills that may lead you to discover new information and even a novel idea. Skipping routine habits can infuse fresh ideas that you did not realize exists. When you engage in unfamiliar activities, you might also look at things differently and find simple ways to accomplish the task a lot easier.
Accept the Reality in Decision-making
There comes a time when you face a situation that presents you with no scope for any alternatives to decide. Anyway, embrace it, and as you keep trying to improve your situation, some new alternatives might come your way. With that opportunity, you leverage your situation. Remember, things do not last permanently.
At other times, we realize that some decisions we discarded are worth trying again that seem to fit the new task at hand. What did not work in the past becomes relevant to the evolving situation.
Be willing to adapt to changes happening in your social, economic, and political environments, and the pace of technological advancement. Accordingly, making effective decisions in your personal life to take on life challenges can be easier for you to manage.
With perseverance and hard work, a short-term loss could transform into a potential benefit in the long term. In the decision-making process, if we plan meticulously and are passionate about pursuing our goals, there’s less chance of losing.
Focus on the long-term goal while deciding, knowing that there will be disruptions along the way.
What Lies Beyond Decision-Making?
An effective decision is not just to deal with the present task, but the ability to look over the long-term consequences.
Conduct research on a similar issue you have that could be from past personal experience or somebody else’s and relate to how the situation evolved. That should give you a clearer picture of what to expect from the current situation you are in.
In the next few years, how are things likely to change? Consider the pros and cons of your decision and how it might affect your goal. Predictions are subjective, so if you prepare to face any surprise beyond your control, at least you can handle the situation better.
Visualize Your Decision
Play out a scene in your mind about how events will most likely unfold in that particular situation. For example, when I have to give a speech, I take off some time and start preparing my speech. After that, I try to create a mental picture of speaking at a gathering with all the details. Starting with how I would walk into the meeting place, smile at the crowd, and feel the environment. Then I would visualize beginning my speech, looking at the audience and thinking that I have given a perfect speech.
That’s the power of mental exercise. It can help you get over anxieties and fear of making that big decision. Rehearsing the entire scene in your mind of what you’re going to do can be powerful in decision-making.
Assess Your Decisions and Possible Consequences
Deciding on a day-to-day basis will depend on varying tasks and issues to deal with. Some decisions may require a habitual process with little thinking, as with choosing what food to eat or what program to watch on television.
There are times, you need to make important decisions that could send a rippling effect requiring multiple decision processes to follow up.1 The decision could be your choice of a college, career, personal finance, marriage, buying a car, a home, or any other choice. In such a situation, you would want to harness all your thinking power to decide on the best course of action.
If you’re struggling to come up with effective decisions in your personal life, sometimes it’s good to rely on your instinct. Then keep reflecting and evaluating your thought process.
Giving some time for your subconscious mind to analyze by taking a break or sleeping over the issue may yield a better decision-making outcome.
In my case, my mortgage loan was overdue for some months. I couldn’t keep up with regular installment repayments. I needed to straighten my defaulting payments. Before I acted on my decision, I made sure I could visualize where my financial position stands in the next year.
The more interests accumulate on my outstanding loan; the more my debts grew heavier, not forgetting poor records on the loan book with the bank.
This called for a prudent decision, but that also meant unsavory plowing through some assets. Anyway, I sold some of my assets, including the only car I owned. That was the only way to salvage mounting interests in loan liabilities.
Until my loan stabilized, I had to cut back on spending. With the limited source of income, I had to monitor my expenditure constantly and look for ways to increase financial income flow.
Self-Reflection in Decision-Making
Get to know yourself better by introspecting on your beliefs, attitudes, and values. Honest self-reflection of your habits and beliefs will show you who you are and how your attitudes and values are guiding your decisions.
If you feel you’re making poor decisions or struggle to decide, you need to work on your grey areas to improve your decision-making skill. Breaking poor habits may take time, but that’s the way to work on the root causes affecting your decision-making.
See What You can Change about Yourself
Looking inward can reveal a lot about yourself and what you want in life. If you struggle to attain your goal, maybe you want to know whether certain beliefs you hold hamper your success. Be honest with yourself and take a hard look and what you can change about yourself to improve your life.
Years of conditioning our minds with routine habits will not be easy to change overnight, but striving toward personal growth is worth the effort. With determination, one can gradually move away from old habits and beliefs and start making effective decisions in personal life.
I have made my share of poor decisions. My old car was nearing its lifespan and I needed a new car. There were options on offer, with varying budget requirements. Finally, when I narrowed down on my choice of the car, I had to confront two choices: a decision based on financial prudence or an emotionally swayed decision. I knew that buying a particular model would make a dent in my personal finance, but powerful emotion ruled over my logical sense.
Overcome the Decision Barrier
How people will judge us for our decision should not be on the priority list. That will impair and distract our focus from making effective decisions in our personal life. Everybody has good reasons for their decisions. What I think to be very important may be irrelevant to others and vice versa. That way, there is no connection between my decision and what others might think of me.
Only you are responsible for your decision and action. You’re trying to decide whether to improve your life or reach your goal. So focus on what is important for you and your loved ones and how you want to shape your destiny.
Focus on Your Decisions
We associate with other people in various social activities, whether with family members, friends circle, workplace, or larger communities. Without much thought, often we tend to correlate our decisions with what others might perceive us. We fear how others will judge us and that influences our decision-making. This may also deter us from making effective decisions in our personal life. It may turn out that our assumptions of others are wrong and that they don’t have time to keep track of our decisions and actions.
For some people, the social norms and expectations from society come in the way of making bold decisions. But as long as your decisions and actions do not harm others, those fears should not pose a barrier to your free-thinking and your decision.
Decide What is Good for You in Your Personal Life
When you are about to make a major decision in your life, for example, switching a career, some people, including your family, might not appreciate your decision. In your organization, your decision might come under criticism from co-workers. These decisions could be in all kinds of situations and everyone will not agree with you.
Anyway, have courage and act on it if you can visualize your goal achievement. But that also means you do not ignore criticism altogether and over-shoot your confidence. When dealing with other people, keep your ego in check. Sometimes, your impulsive ego could be mistaken for your confidence overriding others’ genuine feedback.
Evaluate your decisions often where it is taking you. After deciding, the initial success may not guarantee permanent payoffs. Keep track of changes occurring, whether in your personal life, at work, or anything that relates to your decision. The social environment is dynamic and so making effective decisions in personal life needs to align with changing realities.
If you have comments or feedback, I’d like to hear your views. Please share your thoughts in the Comment Section.