How Decisive are you?

Howard Stanley Marks, American Investor & Writer, Co-founder & Co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management says: “The correctness of a decision can’t be judged from the outcome.”

He continued saying “The outcome of your decisions has nothing to do with your process. That’s because we don’t control outcomes; we control our actions. To become decisive, stop focusing on outcomes.”

If you’re like most of us when faced with a decision, we panic, use probability to make decisions, push the whole thing away, be confused, come back to it, and just pull the socks at the very last moment.

The inability to decide quickly is something can almost relate to. I remember those days which I can relate to now but are not able to resonate at that moment time when my lecturer named “Mohina Kulkarni told us all “your life is the result of all choices you make”.

We ignored her thoughts as she wasn’t making sense at that moment, she mentioned that everything in life comes from the decisions we make. I still remember, what was she trying to articulate?

I’m glad she did. As adults we know, our lives are truly the result of our decision. That means we can shape our lives by deciding on basis of knowing something. We often put too much stress on our decisions, and as a result, we end up becoming ourselves as to our inability to decide quickly.?

While it will never be easy to make good decisions, I have found 3 things that have made me more decisive in life.

?Here they are:

?1.?????Don’t fear the outcomes:

Whether it’s choosing between a good job or a bad job, a new car, or a bigger house, almost every decision we make predicts the future. In each case, we imagine how the outcomes of our choices will make us feel and what the emotional consequences will be. Sensibly, we think fully about the option that makes us feel happy. People predict the impact of decision outcomes and life events, both good and bad.

?As per my experience, I took several decisions without fearing the outcomes as it was making me happy like joining my current organization after working for overall 5+ years and having a stable career, as my current organization is providing me exposure and providing me opportunities to become a good leader.

?2.?????Keep it Simple & Limit your options:

There is a bunch of related behavioural science theories that one can keep in mind while taking decisions:

1.?????Analysis Paralysis is an inability to decide due to over-thinking a problem.

2.?????Decision Fatigue the quality of your decision makes worse after taking multiple decisions in a short time.

3.?????Information Overloading too much information confuses us and harms the quality of our decisions.

4.?????Many Options if we have many options, we end up making wrong decisions.

Based on the above understanding, I have created a simple rule for making every decision. Keep it simple and limit your options, the more options you take it will create more problems and you will end up making wrong decisions.

3.?????Being decisive matters:

I can relate to it in a much better manner than those who had faced similar situations in their life while few of the decisions had ended up making losing opportunities which could have changed life altogether, we will see these scenarios in the relationship, business & careers. It usually happens when we have a lack of confidence while making any decisions or if we have more options or more information about it.

If you have a bit of inability to make decisions in you, I encourage you to address it. Decide to become a decisive person.

Make a decision and get on with your life it can be simple as that. But only if you make it so.

References:

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/15359281-the-most-important-thing-illuminated-uncommon-sense-for-the-thoughtful

Don’t fear the outcome: https://hbr.org/2020/06/how-to-overcome-your-fear-of-making-mistakes

Keep it simple: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-improve-decision-making

Analysis Paralysis : https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/analysisparalysis.asp#:~:text=Analysis%20paralysis%20is%20an%20inability,an%20inability%20to%20pick%20one.

Decision fatigue : https://www.healthline.com/health/decision-fatigue

Overload Information : https://aisel.aisnet.org/sighci2016/3/#:~:text=It%20is%20shown%20that%20information,also%20improves%20decision%20making%20outcome

Over choice: https://nesslabs.com/overchoice

Being Decisive matters: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-be-more-decisive-at-work