Making decisions in life is something we all have to do every day of our lives, we have no training in it and we rely on our experience and intuition.
Have you ever considered how our decisions start the moment we wake up on a morning;
- Do you get up when the alarm goes off or have a longer lie in?
- Do you wash your hair?
- What will you have for breakfast?
- What time will you leave for work?
- What time will you wake the kids up, if you have them?
We make decisions every day with hardly a consideration, automatically deciding what is in our best interest. Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes not so good. I remember on a training course many years ago when the tutor told us, if you have to decide if your hair needs washing when you get up in the morning, then it clearly does because otherwise you will go through the day subconsciously looking for evidence that you should have washed your hair. Every mirror, every comment will be evaluated.
Consider, when was the last time you had to join a queue and you had several choices, did the one you chose move at a snails pace, whilst all the others raced through? You are likely to remember the bad decisions and tell other people about it but can you recall the last time you joined a queue and got through quicker than anyone else, who did you tell that day? Probably no one because we tend to focus on the negative experiences.
But the bigger decisions take more time and can easily get us in a stressed state even though we take no credit for the fact we are making what is likely to be hundreds and thousands of decisions every day.
Change often accompanies decision making and many people find change very difficult that is until you have teenage children and that’s the last you see of any change, particularly the monetary kind!
Decisions don’t have to be difficult and you can adopt some really simple strategies to make sure you make the right decision for you every time.
SO HERE’S MY TIP FOR THIS MONTH
How many of you have a ‘Lessons Learned’ log or book? If you don’t, then create one for yourself, a simple spreadsheet or matrix in a book and mark the top headings with the following:
- Date,
- What Happened,
- Cost (Time, Money or Quality)
- Learning (What you will do differently in a positive way in the future)
Then under each heading write down which decisions you’ve made that haven’t been your best each week, it could be an advertising campaign or something you’ve purchased or someone you’ve recruited. Write down what happened, what did it cost you in terms of money, quality or time?
What did you learn and what changes can you make to improve your decisions in the future?
By creating a lessons learned log you are re-programming your subconscious to learn from what doesn’t work and change it into what does in the future. It is so often what doesn’t work that builds the foundation of learning for what does work, after all James Dyson, the entrepreneur who created the first bag-less vacuum, created over 5000 prototypes of his vacuum cleaner before he found one that worked. Ask yourself how often do you give up after only one or two things don’t work and he was still going at 5000?
Until next time enjoy learning lessons!
About the Author:
Angela Whitlock is a Hypnotherapist, Coach, EMDR and Cognitive Behaviour Therapist as well as a qualified Prince II Project Manager, with a difference. As a published author her book Walk on the Grass focuses on the Creative and Emotional Intelligence aspects of life and is available from Booklocker at http://bit.ly/walkonthegrass In addition she can be seen speaking at business events, nationwide. If you would like a free excerpt of the book, you can sign up for her newsletter at http://www.angelawhitlock.com
