Making Decision Is Easy

People often say that they find it hard to make decisions. Fortunately or unfortunately we need to make decisions all the time, ranging from trivial issues like what to have for dinner, right up to life-changing career decisions, or who to marry for life. Academic studies suggest that adults make about 35,000 decisions per day. 

In a recent conversation I had with a senior executive, he wisely pointed out that making decision is easy while the key is to stick with the decision. The more you stick with the decision, the better the decision becomes. While it first sounds self serving, it is truly an aha moment for me. 

Making business decisions seems especially hard for people with technical background who are trained to seek truth as if everything in the business world has THE RIGHT answer. Some people put off making decisions by endlessly searching for further information while others resort to other people to offer recommendations.

You have heard the saying that the only thing worse than making wrong decision is not to making decision at all. The problem is you think you have time when in reality time is the essence for most business decisions in the dynamic and fast moving business environment.

Here are some perspectives to ease the decision making process:

First of all, your decision is unlikely THE final decision. While we may believe that this is the final decision about some issue, most decisions are rarely those involving life and death. We often tend to overdramatize the consequences of each decision. This decision will most likely lead to other “forks in the road” and opportunities for change. In other words, one should always maintain a healthy perspective that even though it may not seem likely, this single decision will not affect humanity as we know it. Appreciate the power of serendipity and that things often have a way of working themselves out.

Secondly, all business decisions are made with incomplete information. The world is constantly changing. While we need to recognize sound decision requires the right level of available information, we also need to acknowledge that almost all business decisions will need to be made with incomplete information.

Thirdly, the more difficult the decision, the less significant the differences are regardless which decision you choose. As long as you the decision, it is very likely either outcome will be beneficial to you, either in terms of rewards or in the worst case scenario.

Finally, for making personal decisions, your intuition is probably telling you more. Seek inner self to understand your value for decision making. Your specific goals may change, but your values are deeply embedded principles which will guide you on the right path. 

I will end with a quote from Deepak Chopra: The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make a decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling and action you experience. 

(This is my first post of a Series on Leadership and Decision Making. It is an invitation-only new product platform that LinkedIn is piloting to help members build a community around the topics they care about by writing regularly about those topics. ?If you find my article informative, please subscribe to my series by click the subscribe button on the top of the article to be notified of my new articles. Better yet, please join the conversation by leaving a comment or share the post with your network. Thanks and as always I appreciate your feedbacks.