How To Strengthen Your Decisiveness Ability

Decisiveness is the ability to evaluate situations and make informed decisions in a short time without procrastination or escaping from given responsibility. Read on to know how to develop your decisiveness ability.

Ways to Trust Your Decision-Making Ability

Every day is a new day to make a series of decisions. From simple things such as whether or not to hit the snooze button to bigger life decisions, such as in career and marriage, our decision-making process is always at work. In fact, according to a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University, we make approximately 226.7 decisions on food alone. Several sources on the net will tell you that people make about 35, 000 decisions in a day. This emphasizes the need for a strong decisiveness ability, given that there is a limitation in resources, especially time.

The Decision Making Process

Decisiveness is not about making decisions right at the moment without thinking about the consequences; that’s just being impulsive. It’s the ability to take the big picture into account while recognizing the possibility of both the positive and negative consequences.

Here are some decision making styles and strategies that influence the decision-making process:

• Impulsiveness – going with the first option and be done with it.
• Compliance – choosing an option that appears to be popular, comfortable, and pleasing to those who are affected by the decision.
• Delegating – giving the responsibility of making decisions to others.
• Avoidance/ deflection – denying or ignoring decisions to avoid the impact of the responsibility or to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
• Balancing – weighing the pros and cons of the options and using the result to arrive at a decision.
• Prioritizing & Reflecting – determining which choice has the most impact than putting your thought and energy into it.

In reality, we use a combination of these styles in everyday decision making. Understanding which style you turn to may shine light into understanding where to work on in strengthening your decisiveness ability. Here are further ways to do just that:

How to Strengthen your Decisiveness Ability

 

 
In cases when tossing a coin does not help, you may use these tips to strengthen your decisiveness ability instead:

Understand The Root Cause Of Your Hesitation

 

There are several reasons why you might be hesitant to make a quick decision. This could be because of:

• Lack of information. If so, try to be specific about the information that you need to make an informed decision at a given time. Focus on what matters to you and avoid noise that leads to paralysis by analysis.
• Choice Overload. This happens when you feel overwhelmed by a myriad of choices laid in front of you. Try to keep it simple and focus on what you need.
• Anxiety. Often, indecisiveness roots from the desire to control and do things perfectly. It masks the hidden anxiety we have about the future, and it delays the feeling of uncertainty. Keep in mind that not making a decision leads to nothing, and if you have done your research and gathered enough information, you have done your part.

Eliminate Small Decisions

This is so you can focus your mental energy on important ones. Create your own system or habit to do menial tasks in a particular way or time. For example, you may choose to always workout after work. This could be a habit that won’t require much energy. You may also incorporate the “2-minute rule,” which states that if you can do it in less than two minutes, do it now.

Set A Time When Making Decisions

Challenge yourself to arrive at a decision in a limited amount of time. Start with small decisions first, for instance, give yourself three minutes to choose which restaurant you should go to. Stick to your decision and move forward. Work your way up slowly until you feel comfortable enough to use this strategy in a bigger decision.

Familiarize Yourself With The Areas That Require Decision Making

Are you having a hard time deciding on venturing into business? Career shift? Or even relationships? You may research these topics so you can have enough information that you need to make a decision. Prior background and banking on knowledge would help a lot in future decisions.

Consider Asking For Help From A Life Coach

 

Sometimes a little help from a stranger could be useful in improving your decisiveness. Like a sports coach, a life coach may help you work on the goals specific to you by identifying problems, assisting in finding your motivation, and developing a plan.

We make decisions every single time, whether we are aware of it or not. Wherever you are now may have been determined by the series of decisions you have made before. We use different strategies to deal with many choices–both good and bad. Learning how to be decisive is necessary to achieve your goals. At the end of the day, it is better to have chosen something than nothing at all.

Need help in strengthening your decisiveness ability? Get support and insight from top-tier physicians, completely available for you 24/7. Contact Opt Health today or leave a comment below!