If you’re decisive at the office, you can put those same skills to work for you in your personal life.
Here are some benefits of becoming more decisive and practical steps for making better decisions faster in every aspect of your life.
The Benefits of Becoming More Decisive
1. Pursue your dreams. One of the major benefits of making conscious choices is that you can shape a life path that reflects your values and priorities. Without taking action, you may find yourself drifting through whatever circumstances come along.
2. Save time and energy. Making decisions more quickly frees the time that gets wasted going back and forth over the same options. It also eliminates the stress, confusion and anxiety that you may feel about making mistakes.
3. Feel more confident. Taking greater control over your life and developing your decision-making skills builds your self-confidence. This creates a positive momentum because it’s easier to make decisions when you believe in yourself and your abilities.
4. Learn more. Every decision is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and the world around you. The choices you make reveal your character. The fear of failure can be transformed into a willingness to learn from adversity and gain valuable feedback about areas where you can improve.
How to Become More Decisive
1. Motivate yourself. Once you make the conscious effort to become more decisive, you’ll recognize opportunities to be more pro-active throughout your daily life. It can be scary to commit to a course of action, so remind yourself of the advantages of leading a more intentional life.
2. Do your research. Making reliable decisions requires the correct information. Get your facts and figures straight by doing some research on your own or consulting those with the relevant expertise.
3. Analyze the pros and cons. For complex decisions, it’s often helpful to draw a grid. Plot the pros and cons and assign them a value based on their importance to you. Real life dilemmas may be more complicated than simple math, but this exercise gives you a good outline for what direction to take.
4. Start small. Get a gradual start with making quick decisions in areas where you feel confident and where the consequences are relatively minor. Try out the bargain brand shampoo or buy throw pillows in a new color scheme.
5. Practice. Work your way up to more significant decisions as you build confidence in your abilities. Learn to trust your judgment and accept any consequences or criticisms that may arise.
6. Give yourself a timeline. Outside of the office, you may have to set your own timeline to prompt yourself to action. If you want to buy a house in a few years, start now to make financial decisions that will give you the savings and credit rating you’ll need to achieve your goal.
7. Face your fears. The fear of making mistakes can be a barrier to becoming more decisive. Be gentle with yourself but move ahead even if you’re nervous. Mistakes are a part of life and, in the long run, you may learn more from failures than from victories.
8. Follow your heart. The decisions you make in your personal life are successful if they bring you more happiness and contentment. You may find more gratification in being a professional dog walker than in going to business school. Rational analysis is helpful, but you want to feel good about whatever choices you make.
Becoming more decisive will help you get more out of life. Take a pro-active approach to making life choices that you can be proud of.