We all make decisions every day. Whether mundane decisions such what to have for breakfast, what to wear, whether to take the train or bus to work or complex ones such as what to invest on, who to marry or where to work? Some decisions can be made without much thought but important ones may need more deliberation because errors can lead to grave consequences such as making risky investments, marrying the wrong partner or accepting the wrong jobs.
We all have different processes we go through to make our decisions. Some make up their minds easily while others take a while. I fall into the latter category even for mundane decisions. I recently wanted to get a case for my laptop and it took me a week to decide on which type to get. I researched and researched, read reviews on amazon, and best buy, to name a few. You would think it was a life altering decision and not a $20 laptop case.
“If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another.” ~ Deepak Chopra. The belief that we may miss out on important things may factor into why people delay decision making. Our personalities can also affect the way we make decisions. Introverts tend to take time with decision making compared to introverts. A lot of factors also contribute to decision making.
Factors such as uncertainty, high risk consequences, available alternatives and interpersonal issues contribute to how we make our decisions. While it may be good to have an effective process or a formula to improve the quality of our decisions, there is no hard and fast rule. Each decision presents its own challenges and intricacies.
A number of logical processes have been offered to help address the critical element of decision making. One of such is the seven steps to logical decision making which includes creating a constructive environment, investigating the situation in detail, generating good alternatives, exploring other options, selecting the best option, evaluating your plan and taking action. These does not necessarily mean all our decisions will be the right ones, sometimes intuition and gut feeling plays a major role. Whatever process you decide on, just make sure it works for you.