Some people just know how to make decisions.
I'm not one of them. It's hard for me to decide on something, especially when there are so many choices to choose from.
I've learned a secret to decision making though, which may or may not make it easier for you. I found it's helped me from that horrible habit of procrastinating which so many of us seem to suffer from. I'm not entirely cured of it but I can say I've improved.
Make it. A decision is an act. It has to be made. We make a choice to do something, even though sometimes we might think we've been compelled by external sources.
Nothing external can compel you until that little internal switch has been flipped. Sometimes it's a matter of being in the right time at the right place, perhaps even with the right person.
I was sitting at a very lovely cafe and had just ordered a café latté. There was a decision process even with that latté; I had been to this particular café before and I had previously ordered their South Indian coffee which was just alright.
I was in the mood for trying something a little different, and I wanted a coffee with milk. So my decision to order a café latté was not only spontaneous to some extent, it was also in keeping with my general philosophy in life; to have as many new experiences as possible.
Once the coffee was brought, I found myself hoping for a cookie to go with it. I didn't see one and I didn't feel like ordering anything from the menu. The Universe must have heard my hearts desire because a few minutes later the kind young waitress brought me a plate of six cookies! There were three different varieties of cookies on the plate. I really only wanted one cookie, so I was left with choosing one.
There was a dark brown which must have been a chocolate flavored one; as crazy as this sounds I'm not crazy about chocolate. Then there was a thin cream coloured one which seemed like it could have been a butter flavored one, and then there was a slightly thicker one that was a little thicker and rougher to look at. I'm a sucker for anything that remotely looks like it might have coconut in it, so I chose the one that was thicker and rougher in texture.
Obviously every decision requires some thought process, some more than others. In this case my decision was influenced by my love for coconut. This was a simple decision of course, certainly not in the category of life-changing ones.
It was significant for me though, because it made me realise how we can actually simplify our decision making process. Some people make a list of pros and cons, and that's one way of narrowing down possibilities.
But once we make the list of pros and cons we still need to act, in other words decide. It's only until we decide and move on that decision do we understand if that decision is a good one or something to learn from.
You could even think of decision making as a skill; and like any skill the more you do it, the better you become. One of the perks of getting better at decision making is that we can apply it to any area of our lives.
We can even decide how we want to feel; we can deliberately decide that we want to feel good today and do so. No matter what anyone might do or say to annoy us, we can choose not to get annoyed. To me that's a win-win.
We make choices every minute of our lives; do we turn left or right, should we use brown sugar or white, should we stay in that relationship or end it. But once we remove our egos and our emotions, and listen to that still small voice in our heart we can make a good decision.
Like Nike has been saying for decades now "just do it!" Experience it. And then decide if it's something worth repeating, or not.
