What Hunger Can Teach You About How You Make Decisions

When it was time for lunch, I couldn't wait until the last question had been asked by the last seminar participant so I could make my way across the street to the great little Italian restaurant to get a turkey club on rye with sliced avocado, red onion and just a hint of lemon butter vinaigrette dressing.

I'd been dreaming about that club sandwich all morning. My stomach had been growling since about 11 a.m., so by the time 2 p.m. rolled around - my taste buds were literally screaming for this sandwich.

When you're hungry - and hungry for a particular food - it's all you can think about. You're focused on this almost to the exclusion of everything else, right?

How does this correlate to decision making? Hunger creates a focus. And this is the first step in the decision-making process.

The First Step in Learning How to Make Decisions Quickly

In short, you must learn to put everything else out of your mind and focus on one thing exclusively. This is important because where most of us get hung up on making decisions is that we get bogged down by choices and consequences, ie:

If I do x, then y will happen, which might lead to z, which means this or that may happen.

When you focus one thing, you become "task oriented," which means you give all of your attention to the situation (want/need/problem) at hand.

The Second Step in the Decision-Making Process

Once you know what your want/need/problem is (ie, get that sandwich), it's time for the next step, which is to consider options -- eg, how am I going to get lunch? Will I drive to the restaurant, walk to it, take a taxi, hop a ride with a colleague, etc?

This is perhaps the scariest step for many, because it's at this point that they start to consider the consequences of their actions, eg, I could save on gas by hopping a ride with a co-worker but if I do, they may have errands to run and the restaurant may not have any more of the turkey club by the time I get there.

But again, the key is to isolate. What's your mission; your task? In the example above, the goal was to satisfy the hunger by getting lunch - specifically that turkey club sandwich.

Now, what's the quickest and easiest way to do that? Take your own car - and forego the savings of carpooling it to lunch - in order to be sure that you'll arrive before the restaurant sells out of its popular turkey club, right?

The Final Step in Learning How to Make Decisions Quickly

So, you arrive at the restaurant. You took your own car and you got there at the beginning of the lunch rush. But, they were sold out - because the restaurant underestimated the demand for their turkey club on that day and simply ran out early.

It's at this point in the decision-making process that many would second-guess themselves, eg, I should have taken lunch earlier, I should have called ahead, I should have had it delivered.

Don't!

Part of learning to make better decisions quickly is to live with the results.

You see, no matter how you try to cover every base, life will always throw you a curve ball.

Instead of beating yourself up, at this point you should make adjustments in your decision-making processes in the future based on the new information you learned. That's the beauty of experience - you learn from it by applying your newfound knowledge the next go round. This type of critical thinking is what separates great decision-makers from those who struggle.

While learning how to make decisions isn't as easy as ordering a turkey club sandwich, it doesn't have to be as difficult as most of us make it either.

Our top 5 Strengths help us to discover HOW we make decisions. So, my Strategic talent takes over when I am hungry! Knowing how I work, has helped in all the decisions I have made. It helps me NOT to beat myself up, as well, when things don’t go as planned.

Our individual decision-making process is so unique, that without understanding it, we can only HOPE that we are making the right decisions.

Want to know your top 5 Strengths and understand how you make decisions, more clearly-click HERE.

Celebrating Your Unique Genius,

Lori and Shari