Category Archives: Decision Making

A Simple Way to Make a Decision

Do you have a decision to make? Are you unable to make decisions? Here’s a tactic we heard on the To the Lost episode of Boardwalk Empire:

Flip a coin.

Whether it comes up heads or tails barely matters. What does matter is how you feel when it’s in the air. What are you hoping for?

It’s your intuition at work. And ultimately, it can be an important decision-making tool. If you prefer, you can use a Magic 8 ball to make your next decision.

(Unless you usually get it wrong. Then you may want to use
George Costanza’s technique.)

Whatever you do, there’s an important concept underlying these methods. It’s a systematic way to apply your intuition. Once you grasp it, it will help you make decisions in life.

Frame your options as a binary choice: heads or tails, yes or no, this or that, either or.

For example, let’s say you want to start a business. One question you may ask is when.

So get out your coin. Heads you’ll go into business now. Tails you’ll wait.

Flip the coin in the air. Do you feel a knot in your stomach? Which side do you want to come up?

More importantly, don’t stop there. Take the hoped-for answer and expand on it. Create a series of choices:

Part-time or full-time? Online or off? Start or buy? Independent or franchise?

Of course, the choices will be determined in part by the type of business you want to own. Step-by-step, you’re creating a decision tree.

By getting it on paper, you’ll be able to quickly see how choices now affect options later. You can weigh what you’re giving up against what you’re getting. Then you’ll be able to make a decision that leads to BIGG success!

Image in this post from stock.xchng

Do You Make or Take Decisions?

railroad tracks

This is a guest post by Dana Mancuso. In addition to being a mom of two and the wife of one, Dana is the Public Information Manager for the Urbana Park District. She also is a freelance writer. We always enjoy her interesting perspective on our daily lives.

I love exploring the differences between American English and British English. There are some nuances of meaning that can really make you think if you choose to.  The phrase I have been thinking about lately is related to decisions.

In the United States we say “make a decision”, while in England they “take a decision”.

Now essentially we’re saying the same thing. We’re choosing.  But think a little more and you’ll get some great advice for how to think about choosing.

Make a decision
Okay, I’m going to MAKE a decision. The word make itself implies that the decision is constructed and it is worked on. There is sweat and thought and hard work going into that decision. But on the flip side, there is the ownership of that decision. I MADE that decision. I can’t UNMAKE it. (Can I?) I can’t give up on something I constructed or thought about so long? It seems like an all or nothing proposition.

Take a decision
But if I TAKE a decision, it is one of perhaps many options available to me. I envision a library shelf and there are several volumes I could select from. I pick one and start reading. If it isn’t getting me what I need or where I need to go, I can shelve that book (or idea) and choose a new one. There is not as much entanglement with our decisions when we take them rather than make them. We can allow ourselves to put them back and try others that work better.  Maybe taking that second book off the shelf gets you even less information than you had before? But you can put that second book back, too. You never know until you take it.

Image in this post from stock.xchng

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