Would you call yourself a GOOD DECISION MAKER?
How do you know if you are a GOOD DECISION MAKER?
You are a good decision maker if your decisions are yielding the results you want.
To a certain point, which is different for all of us, we make good quality decisions, promptly and with confidence.
These decisions yield the results we want and we move forward with our lives & work.
Past a certain point, which again is different for all of us, we make poor quality decisions, are slow to make these decisions and make them with less confidence.
These decisions do not yield the results we want and we don’t move forward with our lives & work.
In early 2021, I was making quality decisions, promptly and with confidence. These decisions yielded the results I wanted and I was moving forward with my life and work. As the year progressed and I took on more & more and became busier & busier, my decision making reduced in quality, became slower and I made decisions with a lot less confidence.
These decisions yielded the results I did not want and I wasn’t moving forward with my life & work.
In hindsight I realised I had DECISION FATIGUE!
DECISION FATIGUE is when the number of decisions we need to make outweighs the capacity we have to make them and we feel like we cannot make even one more decision – even the simple everyday decisions become difficult!
How do you know if you have DECISION FATIGUE?
If you say YES to more than 3 of these, chances are you have DECISION FATIGUE!
- Do you find it hard to make decisions?
- Are you slow to make decisions?
- Are you less confident than normal in making decisions?
- Have you been making decisions that yield results you don’t want?
- Do you feel fatigued when making decisions?
- Is your to do list becoming unmanageable & overwhelming?
The antidote to having decision fatigue is making EXCELLENT DECISIONS.
Why would you want to make EXCELLENT DECISIONS?
- Decisions you make will be made quicker
- Decisions you make will be made with more confidence
- Decisions you make will be aligned to your vision for your life & work
- You will be more mindful & intentional in your life & work
- You will be less frustrated & overwhelmed
- You will be utilising and saving time, energy & focus
- Will be saving and making more money
So, the million dollar question is HOW do you AVOID DECISION FATIGUE and MAKE EXCELLENT DECISIONS?
YOU MAKE DECISIONS BEFORE YOU NEED TO MAKE THEM!
Here are the 3 steps to MAKE DECISIONS BEFORE YOU NEED TO MAKE THEM!
- START WITH STRATEGY
Strategy is one of my favourite things to do.
If I were to sum up strategy in one word it would be DIRECTION!
Strategy whether it’s a personal or business strategy is all about having structure & systems that set your DIRECTION, support your desired DIRECTION and monitor progress towards your DIRECTION.
The following are the core elements of a stable strategy – Vision, Mission, Values, Goals, Metrics, Plans, Actions, Thinking, Learning, Improving, Reflection, Recognition & Celebration.
When you have all of the above in your personal/business strategy, decision making becomes so QUICK, EASY & SIMPLE.
When faced with a decision, ask ‘Does this align with my strategy?’
If it does, then the answer is an ABSOLUTE YES.
If it doesn’t, then the answer is an ABSOLUTE NO.
The above decisions are made when you create your strategy and plans at the beginning of the year, quarter, month, week and day hence,
MAKING DECISIONS BEFORE YOU NEED TO MAKE THEM!
- CREATE DAILY PLANS & DAILY DISCIPLINE
From your strategy, you will be making annual, quarterly, monthly & weekly plans.
From your weekly plans you will be making DAILY PLANS.
Ideally you will create your daily plans the day before which means you are making decisions about what you are going to do BEFORE YOUR DAY EVEN STARTS!
This is a huge part of MAKING DECISIONS BEFORE YOU NEED TO MAKE THEM!
Creating DAILY PLANS makes you focus on what is important and what absolutely has to get done the next day.
Everything else is a NO!
So that is a bit utopian, in that if it were that simple, DAILY PLANNING would be much more popular!
As well as DAILY PLANNING daily you will also need DAILY DISCIPLINE.
DAILY DISCIPLINE is the difference between keeping your daily plans and not keeping your daily plans.
Are you prioritising your DAILY PLANS & DAILY DISCIPLINE?
If so then you are MAKING DECISIONS BEFORE YOU NEED TO MAKE THEM!
- PRACTISE THE ART OF SAYING NO
Decision making is more about what you say NO to than what you say YES to.
DAILY PLANS mean you have made decisions about what you want to do each and every day.
Effective decision making is saying NO to everything else.
I get it, saying NO to everything that isn’t on your daily plan might work in an ideal world, but we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in a messy, unpredictable, busy world, where plans working out exactly how we planned them are almost an exception to the norm!
Even so, learning to say NO is a game changing skill to master.
Not only will learning to say NO make you a more effective decision maker, it will protect your time, focus & energy enabling you to move closer to your personal & professional goals.
I have 3 tips for you in terms of practising the art of saying NO,
I. Treat NO as your default
Most of us have YES as our default. We may say YES to requests and then if we realise we really wanted to say NO, we figure out a way to reverse our decisions.
In terms of decision making, this is highly ineffective, causes us much stress and means we are not being honest with ourselves and others.
Wouldn’t it be more effective to say NO when you want to?
How could you make NO your default?
II. Treat NO as a muscle to strengthen
Practising the art of saying NO is like building a muscle – the more you use it, the more it grows and the stronger it gets.
The more you say NO, the easier saying NO becomes, the more confident you become at saying NO, the more you will see the immense benefits that saying NO can bring and the more you say NO, the more you and your boundaries will be respected.
The more you say NO, the stronger this muscle becomes and the more you will enjoy using it.
iii. Learn to say NO like a small child
Have you ever watched how small children say NO to things?
A small child’s NO is a clear NO – nothing and no-one will change their minds.They don’t feel the need to tell you why and they certainly aren’t apologising for their NO!
This is because small children know what they want and they don’t have all the baggage relating to the word NO that adults have.
How can you learn to say NO with the same confidence and clarity as a small child?
I wish you super success with your decision making so that your decisions result in the life & business you want!
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Thanks for reading,
Siobhain
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