How To Make A Decision

Posted on June 22, 2007 in Life by byronb

We are all good at giving out advice but it’s different when we have a conundrum ourselves. Experience sometimes teaches us how to make a decision but it’s difficult for some people to do all through their lives. There are different approaches, which often reflect our personalities.

The scientific method involves writing down pros and cons on a piece of paper and seeing which column comes out longest. A more laid back person may leave it all to an eight ball or a Chinese fortune cookie. Others avidly follow their horoscope or have their tarot cards read to guide them. In times past, this is just the method that rulers used when they had important choices to make. How to make a decision can mean delegating to someone else, if only to offset any blame away from ourselves. Leaving it to fate can be fun as long as the decision isn’t too serious.

Someone wrote a book called The Dice Man in which he traveled round and based all his decisions on the roll of the dice. If we all went through life doing that, it would be chaos. Sometimes the best advice on how to make a decision, especially one we have been wrestling with for some time, is to completely forget about it for a while. The break in thinking can often pop the right answer into our heads just when we’re not expecting it. How much weight we give to other people’s advice is a debatable point. Often, when we ask advice, we have already subconsciously made our decision and want someone else to validate it.

People with high-powered jobs have to make vital choices everyday. Some are financial decisions that affect the stock market and the jobs of thousands of people. Medical staff are the ones that really have to know how to make a decision. They have to function in stressful situations and decide quickly, often in life and death situations. Pilots and air traffic controllers are called upon to do the same. In these situations, people have to be confident and instill confidence in others. Military leaders who show indecisiveness will not gain the respect of their service people. Standing in a war zone and tossing a coin does not foster good morale.

Everyday, we, make small decisions; what to wear, what to eat etc. How to make a decision should come easily, after all we get plenty of practice but important decisions are a whole different ball game. Sometimes, when we are standing at a crossroads and frozen to the spot, tossing a coin seems as good an idea as any.