Are you one of those people who takes a break every day to decide what to wear? When you meet up with a friend for a drink, do you always leave the responsibility of choosing the place to the other person? Is going to a free buffet hell because you are overwhelmed by so much food to choose from? Well, keep reading because what I’m about to tell you interests you.

With this article I intend to help you learn to make smart decisions and break the bad habit of indecision to be at peace and satisfied with your life.

Improve decision-making

Notice that one of the things we do most in our daily lives is make decisions. From the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. And your life is a direct consequence of all of them.

When we think about making decisions we usually think of big, transcendental decisions like studying philosophy or mathematics, or whether or not to marry my boyfriend, etc. But throughout the day we make many others. Having toast or cereals for breakfast, going to work by bus or walking, etc… And on many occasions, what makes the difference are these small decisions .

Common errors in decision making

Part of the ineffectiveness in making decisions has to do with the habit of not being able to recognize a series of errors . The main ones are the following.

1. Focus on what you reject

Don’t look at what you don’t earn, which in economics is known as the opportunity cost, but at what you can earn if you choose that option . In this way you will not fall into the dreaded paralysis of analysis, which is nothing more or less than not making any decision due to overanalysis.

2. Delaying decision making

We became procrastinators. We’re procrastinating about what we should be deciding now. If you wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, is clear and there is no risk or uncertainty, you will never make a decision. To avoid this mistake, set a deadline for resolution and stick to it .

3. Being afraid of making a mistake

Error is part of the success process. Successful people make big mistakes . What happens is that they make mistakes early, young, cheap and once in a while. That’s the idea. You’re going to get it wrong whether you like it or not. And those mistakes will be great teachers for you. So, lose the fear of error.

Before we go any further, I would like you to write down on a piece of paper at this point a question you need to make a decision about. I want this article to be as useful to you as possible and to serve you for at least the most immediate doubt you have.

You got it now? Let’s go for it!

Tips for making good decisions

To improve your decision-making ability, follow these guidelines.

1. Establish what is priority and secondary in your life

First things first. And many times we don’t put first things first before making a decision. And we make decisions based on the secondary objectives of our life.

I recommend that you make a list of the most important things in your life . 5 things. And rate them from 1 to 5, according to their importance. And when you have to make a decision ask yourself how it affects these 5 things. In order. If it favors them, you are making the right decision; if it doesn’t favor them, you are making the wrong decision.

2. Implement firewall

Firewalls will be boundaries that you won’t go through when making decisions. In other words, you make the decision, before you make the decision. This avoids making the decision in the heat of the moment or getting carried away by emotions. Thus, you protect yourself from yourself .

Example: Going to a job interview knowing that less than X money, more than X hours or less than X responsibility, I will not, I will not accept it.

3. If you have made a bad decision, let it go

Jump in as soon as possible. Life is too short to insist on things that do not bring you anything . Sometimes we make a wrong decision and hope that it will change. We get stubborn. And I’ll tell you something, every day that passes, since you have invested more, in time, in money, in resources, emotionally, every day it costs you more to make a mistake.

This applies to a book that you have started reading and don’t like, a course that is not what you expected or a relationship that doesn’t fill you.

4. Accept the worst case scenario

Assess what is the worst possible, real, scenario of making the decision. I clarify that it must be real, because you shouldn’t dramatize either, thinking that you will end up under a bridge. And as I was saying it is important, because if you are prepared for the worst possible scenario, you accept it and you can face it, then you don’t have to be afraid of making that decision.

5. Simplify and stay with 2-3 alternatives

Instead of thinking of 50 possible options, try to reduce them as much as possible to 2-3. The fewer options we have, the less our mind will disperse and therefore we will make better decisions.

6. Use the “hot coffee” technique

If you get coffee on the table that’s too hot, what do you do? You wait, you let it cool down for a few minutes and then you drink it. Well, with decisions that seem urgent we can do the same .

Example: A co-worker comes to you and says that you have to decide the date of the holiday now or your wife asks you if you want to go shopping with her. Don’t make the decision in the heat of the moment, wait a bit, cool down and take it.

Just be careful and don’t get so cold that you become a procrastinator.

7. Make the decision when you take action

Action is the bridge that connects thoughts with results. So in any decision, the process ends not when we think about it , but when we take action.

8. Trust your intuition and creative ideas

People think that people who make decisions in a rational and thoughtful way are not usually driven by instinct. Intuition is that thought, that feeling that is on an unconscious plane and that gives you different vibrations depending on what you think about.

On the other hand, according to studies of people who, because of their work, have to be constantly making decisions , more than 49% are driven by intuition . They themselves say that intuition is trained. As you make more and more decisions, your intuition becomes more refined. And they also dare to have creative ideas. So, taking wise ideas is not incompatible with letting your intuition take over.

9. Keep silent

It is difficult to make good decisions in our frenetic day-to-day life; back and forth in the car, surrounded by people and noise. It’s very easy to stop making decisions because you have to do things. A moment of silence is the best thing that can come to make decisions.

A moment of total silence. Go to the park, to the beach or find yourself a place where you can be quiet by yourself and where nobody bothers you. No wi-fi, no phone, no watch.

It’s time to take the role of before, with the decision you didn’t know how to make and apply some of these techniques. You don’t have to apply them all at once. Keep the ones you like the most or think are best for you.

It only remains for me to thank you for having come this far and I hope that all this information I have given you will be useful to you. If you dare, I’ll be waiting for you in the comments and on the networks.