How to Make Better Decisions in Life?

Every child longs for a day when they grow up and have to make decisions in life. When they have grown up they realize that making decisions was not so easy after all. To make better decisions in life, the only thing one has to do is to organize one’s thinking.

With us, you can find a lot of tools for decision making. But before you jump straight to it, remember organized thinking along with critical thinking is the foundation of decision making.

Often we want to make the right decisions and not end up making a mistake. Well, everyone makes a mistake but the key is to minimize the number of mistakes. This is exactly what you can do by following these suggestions and methods.

Let’s take a look at some of these methods to help you make better decisions in both your personal and professional life.

1. Evaluate Cost Benefit

Before you reach the final decision, you want to weigh your pros and cons to be sure that you’re making the best decision you can.

This requires a cost-benefit analysis as if you were in business. You want to examine the outcome of every possible decision you could make, both positive and negative.

This is going to help you see the opportunities and the things that you may miss when a decision is preferred over another. Many a time you also need to evaluate forces working for and against you. I recommend reading Force Field analysis to help you in your decision making.

2. Narrow down your options

In order to simplify your cost-benefit analysis, limit your options. When there are more choices than you can anticipate or manage, it makes it harder for you to come to a final decision.

More choices will lead to more regret because you will consider all the missed possibilities and worry about whether or not you could have chosen differently and been happier. As such, narrowing them down will lead you to some peace of mind.

3. Evaluate the Importance

Not every decision-making requires an equal amount of your time and efforts. One of the common mistakes people make is to give undue importance to the decisions that do not deserve it and vice versa.

So how much time do you think you should spend thinking about a potential decision? Ten seconds, minutes, hours, or even days?

It all depends on what’s at risk. In order to minimize an agonizing decision-making process, determine the significance of the decision and then set a deadline.

4. Stop Sweating the Small Stuff

If you’re worried about what you’re going to watch on television or what to eat for lunch, remember that you need to keep everything in perspective and have a timeframe for decisions.

This is tied to evaluating the significance of the decision, and if it doesn’t affect you or others in a significant way, then don’t waste time debating endlessly about it.

5. Research

This can seem rather obvious, but if you’re going to make a major decision like buying a house or a car, devote your time and effort to informing yourself fully about the impending purchase or decision.

The success of your buying decision and peace of mind is very much dependent on how much you research these big buying decisions. This can mean the difference between being satisfied or completely disappointed.

6.Well-Informed Opinions

If you’re having a hard time, then seek an informed opinion from someone you trust. You can also seek advice from people with experience or authority in matters involving your decision.

This can give you the confidence that you’re making the correct decision. Informed opinions are always helpful, so always look at reviews and ask friends and relatives what they would do if they were in your shoes.