Our decisions shape our life. Knowingly or not we make many choices every day. The ability to choose the best is one of the most important tools that everyone needs in the sea of opportunities, challenges and unpredictability of circumstances.
By making the right decisions, we can quickly achieve what we want and avoid a lot of difficulties and disappointments. Often the very prospect of choice is very painful! To save mental energy people are in an unnecessary hurry and make rash steps. Ultimately, most of the choices are made not consciously, and this, in turn, leads away from the desired results.
Dr. Howard Raiffa, together with colleagues , brought together the results of a variety of studies and described a simple, understandable strategy for decision-making. Dr. Raiffa suggests that you imagine that finding the right option is like climbing to the top of a mountain. In the same way as you step upward step by step, there are also key steps that need to be taken in order to come to conclusions about the situation. The authors of the method named these steps as: Direction, Objectives, Options, Results and Tradeoffs. Faced with the need to make a choice, you need to conditionally divide the process into these parts and pay attention to the points that are most important in a particular case. An emotionally difficult decision will not be easy. But, knowing the sequence in which you need to act, you more easily go through the path of decision making and make a conscious choice.
Step 1. Determine the desired direction
Imagine that you are somewhere in a big city and you would like to visit a particular street called Abbey. Based on the first letters of the request, the navigator chose another street with a similar name, and you did not notice this in a hurry or confusion. As a result, after an hour and a half you found yourself very far from your destination.
The first rule: understand what you want, what is the direction you would like to go? The accuracy of the wording in the first step directly affects everything that you do in the future. If you knew the direction in the first place, you would not go South instead of North in the example above.
Connect to creative thinking. Arrange a brainstorming session as you formulate the task ahead of you. Try to sketch a few possible answers to the question “Where do I need to go?” or analyze the answer that came to mind first and seems to be the most correct and obvious.
If you are faced with serious difficulty, then creative thinking can help to see hidden opportunities. Try to use it to understand what can be useful in the negative situation in which you find yourself.
It should be remembered that most often the need for choice arises in response to some kind of stimulus or trigger. Ask yourself why you even thought about making a decision, what was the main incentive, what is the problem that you want to solve.
Step 2. Objectives
You have already set a good ground when you wonder where you want to go at all. Now we need to split this general definition into parts. For example, you are deciding where to move and realize that you want to live in a calm and quiet area next to the forest. Now you need to decide on the goals behind this. This step involves pause and immersion in oneself. Stop, think about what exactly you want, what is really important to you, what are your expectations?
If you are planning a move, should a forest or park be nearby? Does it matter what kind of trees and birds are there, a high-rise building or the private sector? How far can it be from the office and your favorite meeting place with friends? What do you want to get, feel when you start living in a new place?
A very useful question to ask yourself along the way is the “Why?” Question. Once you’ve identified what exactly you want, ask yourself again why it matters. This will help you reach your true goals and values, which may not be obvious at first glance.
Step 3. Possible solutions
Ask yourself, “How can I achieve what I want?” By answering the question “How?”, You create a set of tools to achieve goals.
Use critical thinking to assess potential obstacles. Almost any goal is bound by limitations. Think about what could be an obstacle in your path. To find far-fetched barriers, try to imagine that there are no restrictions, and evaluate the options that open up in this case. This will help you better understand where fear is driving you and where beliefs are.
Do not to get too hung up on analyzing goals and looking for options. Often the best ideas come to us in a dream or in the shower, that is, when we relax and rest.
Step 4. Assemble your progress
You have already done a tremendous amount of work: you have defined objectives, clarified goals, and considered different options. Now put your plan together in a clear to follow sequence. This step is essential for your mind not to play mind games with you and not to make it feel like you still have some options you have not considered yet. By this time, you don’t want to have any other options. Respect the time you took to get where you are now. At this stage you will have a favorite set of options you would consider to pursue.
Step 5. Trade Offs
It is possible that you have already ruled out some options by the time you investigate the results. Now you need to decide what you will have to give up – after all, we will choose only one. For example, your dream home may be located next to a mixed park, while you want pine trees. We’ll have to compromise. Therefore, we once again clarify what is important to us.
First, you need to take another look at the alternatives – suddenly there is something that most likely does not suit you. Next, you should rank the goals in order of importance (trees, neighborhood, transport system). So you will understand which ones are defining. Now just take each option again and rate on a scale of five how good it is for each goal. Summing up the points, you can easily understand which one will become the favorite.
Awareness and understanding of your goals and values is very important in any circumstances – this is how you get closer to understanding which decision is for you.
Decision making doesn’t have a perfect time measured. The steps above can take an hour, a day, a week or a month. A lot depends on the type of decision you are making and what you are like as a person. As a general tip, keep in mind that if you are feeling stressed about making an important decision, maybe you don’t have enough time to spend and reflect on the steps above. If there is enough time, the stress won’t be there, confidence and clarity on the reasons behind will be. If, on the other hand, you start to feel like you are loosing motivation and forget why you are making a decision at this point in your life, maybe you are spending too long time in the process and a lot of vague thoughts can act as fillers in the time spent not making a decision. At the end, the fillers shadow the real reasons behind the decision you are about to make.
