Have you ever felt nervous about making a
decision that could affect the rest of your life? Sometimes even seemingly minor decisions can
send you into a fit of anxiety when you begin thinking of all the things that could
go wrong.
It's fairly common for people to vacillate
back and forth between several choices, whether they are related to career,
money, business, opportunities, school, or even relationships. How do you know which choice is the best one
for you in any given situation?
Sometimes the best choice is obvious, but other times they all seem to
hold a glimmer of possibility - and the threat of regret. Any one of them could be the pinnacle of
success or the agony of going down in defeat and perhaps looking foolish to
those around you!
The good news is that making wise
decisions is a matter of weighing the potential pros and cons of every
available outcome. This may not always
be easy. You may not be able to actually
think of all the future possibilities.
You probably don’t have the powers of Doctor Strange. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGKPfZTXHsc
) However, below you'll find a simple 3-step process to
help you make wise decisions no matter what part of your life they may affect.
1) What Do You Stand to Gain?
When you've got more than one option to
choose from, a great first question to ask yourself is, "What do I stand
to gain from choosing this option?"
If the rewards are big, you might be willing to withstand a bit of risk
in order to benefit from the opportunity.
Conversely, if the payoff would be small, you might not feel so
confident about taking a chance right now.
Defining your personal level of acceptable risk is an entirely separate
topic for discussion. You must decide
what you are willing to accept and be able to go to bed at night and rest
comfortably. No one else can make that
decision for you!
2) What Do You Stand to Lose?
The next question to ask yourself is,
"What do I stand to lose if this option doesn't work out?" No one likes to think of the negatives in a
potential opportunity, but you could save yourself a lot of heartache with a
bit of foresight! If your losses could
be huge with a particular option, you might decide to hold off for a while to
see if the odds improve over time. This
continues the discussion as mentioned above.
You must decide what you are able to live with and what your acceptable
losses may be within each specific option that you are considering.
3) What's the Worst Thing that Could
Happen?
Finally, take it one step further and ask,
"What is the worst thing that could happen if I choose this option, and
would I be willing to accept those consequences?" It may seem like a very pessimistic question,
but it's extremely effective at clarifying the situation! If you couldn't handle the consequences of
making such a choice, then you know immediately that it's not the right choice
for you at this time. If, on the other
hand, the consequences wouldn’t be so bad, you know it’s a viable option for
you. You can see how these three questions really enter-twine with each other
making you consider what you will accept as the ultimate outcome from the
choices you might make. This somewhat puts
you in the situation that faced Neo in the Matrix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE7PKRjrid4
What do you do if all of your options
hold the same potential rewards and consequences? Go with your gut! Take a few minutes to think carefully about
each possibility, and then choose the one you feel strongest about. Just keep in mind that there are choice decisions
that may or may not be right or wrong within themselves. However, it may not be the decision you want
to make at that particular time. Perhaps
later your decision may resurface and you will face reconsidering the decision
you had previously considered. Perhaps
the opportunity will never present itself again!
When it comes right down to it, there are
no guarantees in decision-making. You
simply weigh the pros and cons, listen to your intuition, and do the best you
can. In the end, there really isn’t any
such thing as a "bad" decision, because you do (or should) learn
something from each one you make. You
may enjoy the information at https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/learn-from-mistakes.htm
in preparing you to gain from every mistake you make. If you keep that objective in mind you should
grow more confident with each choice you make, which will help you make even
better decisions in the future. However,
never forget that we do have a great disadvantage to being able to learn from
our mistakes and that is the fact that we’re only human!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"You must decide to act.
You must decide not to act.
In either case, you must decide!"
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