Have you ever had the experience where, when out to dinner with friends, there’s been someone who could not make up their mind about what to order? You went around the entire table just to give that one person a few extra minutes to select something, and when the waiter came to them, they were still looking at the different options, asking everyone what they were having, and basically, not making a decision. (Or perhaps you were that person?)
For some, decision making is quick and definite. For others… well, not so much.
The analogy of going out to dinner is a simple one, but it can apply to decision making for any area of our lives.
Okay. It makes sense to take some time in exploring your options when say, choosing to marry or not, or choosing a house, or taking on a large loan to buy that expensive car. The risks associated with getting the decision wrong are greater. And of course, the pay-off if you get the decision right is also greater. However, even after pondering and exploring options, at some point, you will have to make a decision. And there is no absolute guarantee that you’ll make the perfect decision.
What doesn’t make sense is to ponder endlessly on those things that we would consider minor decisions – those that don’t involve great risk or deliver significant pay-offs.
When studying the concept of managing priorities, I came across these 5 tips in terms of speeding up decision making:
- To succeed in anything in life, you will experience failure. It’s ok to make a decision that isn’t right. Work on feeling OK about getting it wrong, learning from it, and then moving on.
- The answers already exist in your heart and your instincts. Tap into it.
- The right decision is the one that immediately pops up via your instincts – it’s our thinking that gets in the way and complicates things. Pay attention to your first response.
- Stop asking everyone for their opinion. Start backing your own instincts.
- Re-adjust your expectations on getting 100% of all decisions right:
- Minor decisions only need to be right 25% of the time
- Medium decisions need to be right about 50% of the time
- Major decisions need to be right about 85% of the time
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Free up your time by putting your energy into the big-ticket items.
So, if you end up eating the salad but now think you would have preferred the salt and pepper squid, simply shrug your shoulders and enjoy the salad. You can always order the squid next time.
