Everyday you make decisions. It starts first thing from the decision you make on what time you will wake up. Even if you have the choice to sleep with no alarm and wake up anytime you want, you’ve made a deliberate decision to do that.
Most of us live in a constant stay of busyness which doesn’t allow for much time to make clear and predetermined decisions. Instead, we live by routine which can be full of bad habits. Subconsciously, we are making important everyday choices based on our norm or essentially what’s the most comfortable and easiest decision. In other words, floating down the river of life wherever the current goes verses making purposeful and deliberate choices that will determine the destination. This habitual method of decision makings drastically holds us back from being our best self and achieving the goals and dreams we think about and want so desperately to accomplish. There is a better way!
Our I’ve Decided Community is all about living decided and making decisions based on what you desire to accomplish. It’s not about making rapid fire choices based on emotions and not so stellar habits. Successfully achieving your goals and dreams requires that you make purposeful and well thought out deliberate decisions.
Let’s look at a few decision-making hacks that can help you make more deliberate and purposeful choices so you can get where you want to go instead of just landing in a place you may or may not desire to be.
“4 Helpful Hacks to Making Deliberate Decisions”
Explore –
What are your options? From the smallest of decisions to the most complex ones, at the end of the day, you get to decide what is best for you. Consider the simple decision of what time you should wake up in the morning. You can choose if you want to sleep until the very last minute, if you want to give yourself an extra 15 minutes, or if you want to get up an hour early to do something significant such as exercise or take some time to reflect upon your day. Whichever you choose, there will be an outcome. Your decisions should be deliberately made based on which option will help you take purposeful action towards the goals you have for yourself.
Anticipate –
Envision the outcome. What will happen if you choose plan a, plan b, or plan c? What is the most probable result with each choice you have? Ask yourself lots of questions about the decision/s you’re preparing to make. Do the answers align with the best possible outcome that is truly what you want? Visualize yourself in the future and imagine how you will feel, what you will think, or if you’re happy with where you’re at. Sometimes it’s difficult to make the best choice because we are only considering the emotions we feel in the here and now. However, it’s how you want to feel in the future that matters the most. For example, waking up just in the nick of time to get ready for work feels like the right decision in the moment when I feel warm and cozy under my covers, but I know when I’m rushing and running late, I will be frustrated and mad at myself. The only way to make a well thought out and deliberate choice is to anticipate how my future self will feel about the decisions that I am making today.
Evaluate –
Make a list of the pros and cons. It’s an ancient method, but it still rings true in helping people decide what is the best choice to make. When you understand what the impact will be from every option you have before you, the answer to what your decision should be will become very clear. Take time to try the decisions on just like if you were trying on clothes. Walk through every possible scenario you could expect and write out the good and the bad. Which list is longer? A list of pros and cons will help you evaluate your options and help you remove any emotions that may be weighing in on your decisions.
Embrace –
Be all in! Once you decide what it is you’re going to do, stick the stake in the ground and be committed to your decision. It doesn’t mean you won’t have to adapt every now and then, but you have decided on what you’re going to do. Going back to the example of what is the right time for you to wake up. If you have explored, anticipated, and evaluated your options and decided that it’s best for you to wake up an hour early, then that’s what you do. When morning comes, the alarm rings, and your comfy and cozy in your nice warm bed, remember what you decided. Be committed to your decision because ultimately you have already made a well thought out and deliberate decision based on what is best for you and the goals that you have for yourself. This can’t be said enough, “When you decide, be all in!”
Making predetermined and deliberate decisions is the starting line for purposeful action. Being deliberate in your decisions and actions will put you in the driver’s seat allowing you to decide for yourself where you end up instead of simply drifting to wherever your circumstances lead you. Yes, there will be times you must make quick decisions and go with your gut, but in most situations, deliberate decisions are what’s best and leads you to success.
Article Written By:
Kim Martin, Founder of I’ve Decided, INC.
