A Few More Thoughts on Building Decisiveness

I wrote another article titled “How to be Decisive” that talks about the reasons people experience intense indecision in all areas of their lives and touched on some simple methods to employ to help overcome it. I feel that the subject of effective decision making is a complex one, and so I’ve written a supplementary article to describe a couple of additional ways that you can boost the speed, confidence and authority with which you make your decisions. These are all relatively simple ideas that you can begin applying immediately, yet simply being aware of them can have a profound impact on your overall decisiveness. Intuition There’s nothing “otherworldly” or spiritual about intuition in this sense. All that it refers to is the “gut feelings” that everybody experiences on an almost day to day basis. Depending on your beliefs you may attribute this to many different thinks, however I am referring to the well researched and documented effect of our subconscious mind in snap-decision making. (A good book to read on the subject is Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink.”) No matter what situation you’re in, your subconscious mind will pick up on things that you, the conscious you, are not even faintly aware of. This will lead to the “feelings,” impulses and first impressions that we regularly experience. Studies have proven that going with your instincts overwhelmingly results in the “correct” decision. Expand Your Knowledge No matter what the decision we have to make, indecision is always a result of fear that we will make the wrong choice. The more you understand any given subject, then, the more likely you are to make a quality decision because you’ll have a greater understanding of the factors at play and what they each entail. This is where the phrase “informed decision” stems from. As an example, if you’re looking into buying a home theater system but are feeling anxious and indecisive about which one you want to buy, simply reading a few articles to explain what all the different specs mean and perhaps a review or two on a certain model can work wonders to reduce your stress and quell indecision. Apply Past Experience There’s a reason the words “youth” and “inexperience” go hand in hand. Young people have fewer past experiences from which to draw insight, and so are at a disadvantage to older folks with perhaps years of experience under their belt. The greater the number of experiences you’ve had in a particular field, or even in general, the more knowledge you have to draw from and the more likely you are to make a better decision. Experience is a valuable tool, for indicating both what works and what does not, so make sure to make full use of it. These are three powerful concepts to keep in mind the next time you find yourself in a decision-making situation. The most important think for developing your decisiveness is not to get paralyzed with your formless, “what-if” based fears. In most cases, you’ll find that once you pause and consider the situation, run the options through your head and reflect on past experiences you’ve had, you’ll know right away what the correct decision to make is.