Many of us have a terrible time making decisions. The usual blocks are fear of making a mistake, followed by laziness. In tough times, people tend toward in-decision, which leads to learned laziness.
If you suspect you need more decisiveness from others (or from yourself), develop a process that will allow you to practice decision making. If you practice making quicker decisions, it will soon be one of your strengths.
With business speeding along as it is, we all need to become faster at making decisions.
I have used this simple 4-step process as a starting point with people. It works!
1. Write down what you need to decide. Separate the symptom from the core issue and get to the feeling behind. This will also help you go beneath the mind chatter to the core of the problem.
2. Decide why you need to make a decsion in the first place. This may sound obvious, but it is not. Ask this only after you have completed step one.
3. Set a deadline for making the decision.
4. Gather what you need to research the problem, develop your options and make the decision by your deadline. Reduce you usual analyze time by 50%. Go faster.
Why?
If you devote 7 to 10 days following this process, you will improve the quality and speed of your decisions. Practice on any topic you can find. This is the best way to break out of being a victim of the subtle effects of in-decision.
You will free yourself for more interesting challenges. You will see more opportunity. You already have all the insight and skills necessary to make any decision that confronts you.
( I won’t say “make the decision” to try this. I hope that you will.)
Richard R
