Tips To Help With Decision Making

Tips to help with Decision Making

For many of us life seems more complex and more overwhelming now than ever before, and as we get older decisions can seem more daunting or difficult than they used to.

While we might wish that we could wind back the clock and return to a simpler time, of course we can't. Somehow, we need to learn how to embrace the choices and decisions we have and find our way forward.

When our decisions or choices get challenging or we have too many options to choose from, we can find ourselves in Procrastination or avoidance, which only sends us into more feelings of anxiety or worry if a decision needs to be made.

With all this choice and complex decisions to be made, how can we feel confident with our ability to make decisions and our choices? These tips might help:

1. Phone a friend

The old saying ‘a problem shared it a problem halved’ is well known for a reason. When you are faced with a decision that is important to you, it will help to speak to someone about it.

You will always gain a new perspective from sharing your situation with someone whose opinion you value. You don’t have to follow their advice, but it will certainly help to talk it out.

2. Remember that not choosing is also a choice.

When it comes to difficult decisions sometimes, we forget that not making a decision, or avoiding it, is also a choice.

When you feel there is no choice, or all the choices you have seem undesirable, it can be tempting to do nothing. When you realise that even though you can't choose the events that will happen in your life and you can't choose what other people will do, you CAN choose how you will respond, you CAN choose what something will mean to you, and you CAN choose to seek support.

3. The Rule of 3's

When it comes our daily decisions, too many options can have us feeling overwhelmed or stuck. Reducing the number of options can greatly reduce the stress and anxiety, which is where the ‘rule of 3’ principle comes in. Our brains like to consider information that comes in threes, and we often hear or see information presented to us in threes whether it is based on fairy tales, slogans, marketing, speeches and presentations.

Next time you're faced with too much choice, reduce your options to the top 3 then make your decision from there.

4. Write it down

When all important or difficult decisions must be made it can be very helpful to work through them on paper. By writing things down, you’ll have a physical list that helps you see the picture more clearly and you can identify and analyse different options, like the old pros and cons list, and even give things weightings depending on their importance to you or their alignment to your values.

Remember, no one came into this life with an instruction manual. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone can decide to be kinder to themselves and kinder to others, and everyone can make decisions, with the right tools and support.

‘Happiness is a decision’ - Michael J Fox