The need to make a choice accompanies a person throughout his life - from the decision to drink tea or coffee to the dilemma between hated work with a good salary and a low-paid, but beloved business. Every day we stand at the crossroads, where the choice of two roads is impossible, and therefore indecision in making decisions can turn life into constant stress. Check out tips to help you learn how to make the right choices easily and simply.
Meet the decision matrix
If you are faced with a choice that includes several options with different benefits, a simple decision matrix trick can help you figure it out. The name should not scare you - it's just a table with options listed on the vertical axis, and all the expected benefits and losses - on the horizontal. Based on this, rate each option on a scale of one to five. So, if you do not decide to do it yourself, mathematics will help you make the right decision.
Monitor your schedule
There is nothing wrong with being retrained, but by overloading the schedule, you run the risk of wasting your potential. It is much better to shorten the to-do list, but give the remaining tasks in it a more complete implementation.
It will be most effective to select one or two clear tasks and use the time tracking application to make sure that you really spend most of your week focusing on them. It will also give less cause for concern, which will help to make quick decisions both in work and business, and in general.
Define a deadline for each decision.
The easiest way to force yourself to make a decision is to set a deadline for any choice you are confronted with, as long as the deadline is relevant. If you choose something that will change your life, such as which graduate school to go to, set a date in a month or more. If you choose which wallpaper to stick in the living room, then two weeks should be enough.
The most important thing here is to maintain firm boundaries and not go beyond the allotted time. So if you can’t make a choice by the time the deadline expires, throw a coin.
But before using this method on vital issues, practice simple ones: for example, ask yourself 30 seconds to decide which ice cream you want, 15 minutes to choose a movie for the evening, and one day to plan your travel destination the next vacation.
Cross out the excess until the choice is between two things
Remember how in childhood you solved the most difficult puzzles by exclusion? If your choice is between points, the number of which exceeds two, alternately cross out the extra ones until you choose the best solution.
Reducing the breadth of choice as much as possible eliminates potential fluctuations, and therefore try to narrow the list of possible paths to two options. The fewer they are, the easier it will be for you to choose, which means that the final decision will be clearer and closer. This method is especially useful when you are rushing between varieties of the same item before buying and the number of possible options is at best several tens.
Stop being afraid of the opinions of others
Often, indecision is due to fear of doing something wrong in the eyes of other people.So in nine out of ten cases, many of us are torn between what we want and like ourselves, and what others will like.
So, the next time you are on the verge of making a difficult decision that may affect others - for example, quit your job or not - just remember that this is your life, and therefore, the choice should be made independently.
Ask someone you trust for advice
Yes, your choice is yours, and people should not influence it too much. However, you can always seek the advice of a trusted friend or family member to alleviate your indecision. The help of someone you trust can not only influence the final decision, but also confirm the conclusion that you came to yourself. The fact that someone will look at your situation from the outside can show you a point of view that you may not have taken into account before.
Find out the details
Although you should not spend too much time on every small decision in your life, doing a little research will not be superfluous to make sure that you know with a certain degree of accuracy how each component of the solution will affect your short and long term goals. Especially if you are doing something related to financial planning (for example, leaving your full-time position to become an independent freelancer).
“If you are hesitant about anything, it usually means you are very worried and anxious about a lack of understanding and understanding of the decision,” says financial blogger Scott Bates. The best way to deal with this is to find more knowledge in this area and not stop until you are full of confidence. Then you can make a quick and correct decision.
Get rid of self-doubt
Although you may know that you are good enough to succeed in the end, any doubts and insecurities that are sleeping in your brain will certainly go into effect the moment you are about to make an important decision. So be prepared and, when that happens, be sure to smooth out internal conflicts before you make a decision. By introducing positive affirmations throughout the day, keeping a diary, or even attending therapy, you can reduce your internal critical voice and increase your determination.
Take the diary method. By writing down your thoughts, you can summarize involuntarily negative thoughts in your brain, and then think about them and transform them into a more positive and realistic self-confidence.
Learn to take risks
As we said above, the biggest obstacle to the choice is fear - whether it is fear of others associated with the wrong move, or in the worst case, fear of any step at all. In order to ignore any fear of failure, you must learn to lose and, accordingly, win in order to perceive both of them beyond the norm of life. Both that, and another is born from the ability to take risks, which means, first of all, you should practice this.
What are people really afraid of when they are afraid of making the wrong choice? Either the condemnation of others, or the loss of money. We have already sorted out the first, but the second is more complicated. To get rid of the fear of material loss, take the risk - develop a business, play on the stock exchange, or at least gamble with your loved ones. Fulfillment of risky tasks helps to dispel fear of mistakes and allows you to learn how to firmly make a decision in any necessary matter.
Accept your final decision
The best way to come to an agreement with a choice is to support it, no matter what. Once you have decided on where to go on vacation, what apartment to rent, what outfit to wear or what to order in a restaurant, just believe that you made the right choice.You don’t have to change anything anyway, so it’s best to think that you definitely made the best decision you could. If you want, you can actively look for flaws in all the other options considered - perhaps this will help you at first.