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When making decisions are you paralyzed or empowered? In this blog you’ll get some tips on making the decision-making process easier.

When faced with making a decision, you need to bring in your judgment and understanding of the situation. This is called discernment and is most commonly done by assessing through questions such as -who? -what? -when? -where? -how? and -why? You need to gather as much information as possible to make the best decision.

Your understanding of the situation commonly also involves your senses. Does it feel right? -smell right? -taste right? etc. What does your gut tell you? What is your heart sensing? What thoughts are going through your head? How do you see yourself in the new situation?

Once you have your questions answered and have gathered the facts, you want to analyze them. Sometimes you have to extrapolate or interpret, even read between the lines, to make sense of the data you’ve gathered.

It is good to consider the pros and cons of the decision that you are about to make. Can you live with the consequences? How much are you willing to compromise? Will you have to bend your integrity or moral principles?

Making decisions that can have large consequences or impact on your life can be daunting and paralyzing, but they don’t have to be so. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, get the help of an impartial person or someone you trust who has knowledge in the area that you’re considering. “Two heads are better than one” when making decisions. The other person may see things that you’re not seeing or have an insight that you’ve never even considered.

Be sure to take your time and consider all angles. Don’t allow yourself to be rushed or pushed into a decision that you will later regret.

Consider alternatives such as decisions that will have a lesser impact. Example: Instead of moving across the country for that big job with a big promotion, see if your boss will let you try out that position on a smaller scale in your current location. If you are both satisfied with the results, then it might be wise to proceed further. It never hurts to ask for all the options!

Make sure that you are well rested and not stressed, anxious, or depressed when making a decision. While you should keep your emotions in check, you should still listen to your heart and gut because that is part of the discernment process.

For those who are religious or spiritual, faith is also an important (usually the most important) facet of decision-making. Pray, sit in silence, and listen to that “still small voice” that is guiding you!

Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions on how you take the stress out of make decisions. Feel free to contact me with any questions!

Happy decision-making!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 26th, 2013 at 7:36 PM and is filed under Decision-Making. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.