Making Good Decisions

Making a good decision involves taking risks. You can never be sure of the outcome, but you can make the best decision possible at the present time. There are nine steps to making a good decision:

1. Pinpoint the decision that needs to be made.
Make sure you define the problem so that it can be broken down into specific issues that determine the final decision.

2. Try to get as much information as possible. 
Realise, however, that you can’t get all the information there is; at some point you will just have to make do with what you have.

3. Make sure your information is reliable. Check facts and figures yourself whenever possible.

4. Ask for suggestions and advice. You don’t have to follow it, but you may find out some things you didn’t know before.

5. Make plus and minus columns (or pros and cons), and see which side tips the scale.

6. Ask yourself what would be the best possible outcome of this decision. And what would be the worst? What is most likely to happen. What will happen if you don’t do it?

7. List all possible solutions to your problem and their likely consequences. Then determine the value of each solution and its consequences. List the good and bad points of each one; then compare them all to find the best solution in its proper perspective. Ask yourself “If I make this decision, where will I be in six months from now? In a year? In five years?”

8. Trust your intuition
Ask yourself why this feels right or feels wrong. Learn to trust your deeper instincts instead of following your immediate impulse.

9. Recognise errors and use them to improve your decision-making skills for the next time.

Stages of Development

1. Not knowing.
2. Knowing, not doing.
3. Doing, not knowing you’re doing.
4. Doing, but without results.
5. Doing, getting results and amazed by it.
6. Doing, getting results and bored by it.
7. Extrapolation (applying old knowledge to new areas).
8. Impasse.
9. Revert to stage 1.