Making good decisions is essential to success in any field. Whether you’re a business owner, an employee, or just trying to make your way through life, learning how to make better decisions can mean the difference between achieving your goals and falling short.
Here’s a few quick ideas for making smarter, better decisions.
- Set the bar. Define your goals and objectives clearly. What are you trying to achieve? Without a clear understanding of your goals, making decisions that consistently push your boat towards a shore you want to land on will be difficult.
- Consider all of your options. Make sure to consider all potential courses of action before making a decision. Don’t let yourself be limited by pre-existing assumptions or biases. It’s very easy to assume each decision is binary, without weighing the opportunity cost.
- Accurately weigh the variables of each option. Once you’ve considered all of your options, it’s time to start evaluating them. Consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of each option before making a decision. Think of the long and short-term consequences. Immediate vs second-order effects.
- Know when to stick and when to quit. Once you’ve made a decision, you’re under no obligation to stick to it. If you’ve considered all the variables, don’t capitulate out of fear. But when you’re presented with new information, update your assumptions. Be a Bayesian thinker. Don’t be held hostage by a prior version of yourself.
- Learn from your mistakes. No one makes perfect decisions all the time. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and use them to improve your decision-making process in the future. Sharpen the tool instead of mourning the wood.
By following these simple tips, you can start making better decisions today. Implement them into your decision-making process and see the results for yourself.
