Making Good Decisions

Making Good Decisions About Your Future

When making major decisions about your future, it can be daunting to consider the various decision factors and potential consequences of your choices. It can even cause you to avoid making big decisions entirely, since it can seem safer to sit still in a familiar present than to confront an unknown future. Here are tips on making the best possible decisions about where you’re headed.

• Consider the power of decisions. Your current life is the result of countless decisions, both large and small, that you’ve made over the years. Virtually every choice—from career to relationships to lifestyle habits—shapes who you are now. Think about your past decision points, particularly times where you tried something new, bold or unfamiliar that ended up enhancing your life.
• Visualize your ideal future. A valuable exercise is to mentally unplug from your current situation, adopt an open, positive mindset, and think about the life you’d like to live one year, five years and ten years from now. Decide if this vision aligns with your core values. Then, create a detailed action plan that directs you toward the goals you’ve established.
• Contemplate multiple options. Do some brainstorming, without being self-critical, about the options you’re considering for the future. Freeform brainstorming can help your unconscious mind provide you with the right answers…as it often does if you give it a chance.
• Research and experiment. Learn as much as possible about the future path(s) you’re considering. Experiment with alternative pathways and potential outcomes; try them on for size figuratively or literally, as feasible.
• Meditate on it. If you feel trapped in over-thinking a big decision, try going quiet, breathing deeply, and doing some mindful meditation on the issue. Cutting out distraction can help you hear your inner voice with more clarity.
• Assess the pros and cons. Consider using the trusty old pro/con list technique to help you decide upon a direction to take. List the advantages and disadvantages of your proposed path. You can augment the power of this exercise by assigning degrees of priority to each listed factor.
• Listen to your gut. Remember not to discount your gut feeling about a decision. It often indicates the right path to follow. A sample exercise is the coin flip technique—assigning a different outcome to each side of a coin and paying inward attention to the side you really want the coin to land upon. This immediate, instinctive reaction likely indicates your preference.
• Obtain other perspectives. While you don’t want to ignore your gut instincts, it may help to seek input from others whose life experiences enable them to offer objective insight about your plans.
• Stay flexible. Even after you’ve made a decision and moved forward, remain open to alternative, potentially more efficient ways to move you closer to your objectives. Don’t bemoan your past decisions—just make adjustments in the present so that you’re progressing positively