Making major life decisions and choices can be tricky. These decisions and choices can be so important that if not thought through properly, they can totally change the life course of an individual. Regardless of age, we each need to take accountability for our decisions and our lives. While some decisions are relatively minor and can influence a small portion of our lives, other decisions may affect our overall lives more. Gaining more experience in life and learning from mentors, peers, and textbooks can be useful for making life decisions. But this article focuses on additional ways to make critical life decisions and choices.
Four Foundations for Making Critical Life Decisions and Choices
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Self-awareness – As Stephen Covey said in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Self-awareness is the first and most fundamental application of proactivity.” Self-awareness helps us to understand our wants, needs, desires, and limitations. When making a decision or choice, the self-awareness approach allows an individual to ask whether the decision is consistent with their values and beliefs.
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Reflection – Reflection is an important skill that should be used in making decisions. Many people make decisions on feelings, impulse and only consider short-term effects, but that often isn’t the best path to take. An effective approach is to contemplate and consider the long-term impact of a decision before making it. Reflection allows us to examine, analyze and dissect each option and provide us with a better view of our options and their consequences, ensuring that decisions are made for the long-term, rather than for the short-term.
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Research – The third important factor for making life decisions or choices is research. Sometimes, it is not enough to just think about decisions and reflect on them. We must also do our due diligence, research and understand what consequences may arise from following certain paths.
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Experience – Knowledge gathered from experience is invaluable for making decisions. Looking at events that have happened in the past and understanding how the decisions we made impacted our lives can help guide us in making the right decisions.
The Art of Making the Right Decision
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Make a List – Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each option so that a comparison can be made. It is equally important to take both short-term and long-term effects into consideration.
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Collect as Much Information as Possible – As mentioned above, research is an important factor when making decisions. When making decisions, we should try to collect as much information as possible and read up on books, articles, opinions of experts, experiences of others, etc.
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Take A Step Back – Taking a step back and taking a break can help to consciously and subconsciously process information that was gathered from researching and reflection. Taking a step back from a decision can add perspective and be a practical way to escape from our own biases.
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Sleep on it – Making decisions without due consideration to the decision-making process can be catastrophic. Consider taking a night off to sleep on any major decision. Throughout the night, our brains unconsciously process the data and can help us come to a decision from a new perspective.
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Trust Your Gut Feeling – Despite taking precautionary steps and accumulating data, research, and opinions, we must eventually make a decision. At that moment and despite the data, trust your gut feeling. Our feelings cannot always be explained logically, but our feelings can be a reliable indication of what the right decision might be.
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Choose One and Accept the Consequences – After carefully considering the facts and making a decision, it’s important to accept the consequences and stay positive. No decision is perfect and there may be both short and long-term repercussions that one has to accept.
Decision making is a complex process and requires care and consideration. The decisions we make can have long-term consequences, so it is important to take the time to evaluate each option. By continually refining and improving our decision-making process, we can make confident and informed decisions that can help us reach our goals. To make critical life decisions and choices, it is important for individuals to be self-aware, reflect, research, and gain experience. Additionally, it is important to make a list of pros and cons, collect information from reliable sources, take a step back, sleep on it, and trust one’s gut when making these decisions. To make the right decision, one must accept the consequences and stay positive.