7 Tips to Help Make Right Decisions

This is a good article by Stephen Lau, about decision-making, which contains some useful tips to help us make the right decisions.

Life is about choices — the choices that you make to live the life you want to live. Inevitably, there are good choices as well as bad ones, and that is life. How do you make the right choices? It is all in your mind power. It is not what you have got, but how you use it. Your mind power is uniquely yours. Do not compare yours with that of others: it would be like comparing one’s brain with that of Albert Einstein’s. Remember, according to Einstein, everything is relative.

The human brain has a great capacity for growth and expansion; that is, most of us use only a fraction of our brains, and there is plenty of room for improvement if we effectively harness our mind power.

Mind power is built upon clear thinking. With clear thinking, we make the right decisions. But clear thinkers are not born; they have to work at their minds.

This is how we make the right decisions in our lives.

First of all, give yourself plenty of time to make a decision. Of course, there are drastic and dramatic moments, such as an emergency landing by a pilot, that do not afford you the luxury of time to make the right decisions. However, wherever possible, give yourself sufficient time to make the right decisions.

With ample time, you may be able to assemble all the data available to help you make the right decisions. Mistakes are often made due to insufficient data available, and insufficient data often leads to wrong or poor judgment of a situation that requires one to make the right decisions.

Do not jump at the first solution to a problem, even though in your mind’s eye that may be the “perfect” solution. Always look for other options, though they may seem not as ideal initially.

Sometimes it is difficult to make the right decisions when you do not have previous experience. This is where self-confidence plays a pivotal part. Self-confidence is an attitude, a mindset built upon self-acceptance, irrespective of the outcome of what decision you are going to make. 

This mindset has at its core the value of living in the present moment, which is the essence of the art of living well. The art of living well is always living in the present moment, which is the capability of the mind to see the relationship between the body and the mind. Your mind is uniquely yours, and yours only; while the present moment is real and is timeless. 

When you are living in the present moment, your mind will not be distracted by thoughts of regrets for past decisions that you made, or thoughts of worries about the outcome of decisions that you are going to make. 

Living in the present enables you to accept the outcome of whatever decisions you are going to make. This freedom from anxiety, guilt, and remorse will enable you to make the right decisions without undue stress. Both self-confidence and self-acceptance play a major role in how to make the right decisions.

To make the right decisions, you must not let your emotions get the better of you. Sometimes your desire for something may influence your decisions. Therefore, it is important to be flexible about what you want or deeply desire.

To help clear thinking, you must write down the pros and cons of your decisions so that you can actually “see” them in writing.

If you have doubts, it is good to seek second opinions so that you will have an open mind about what others may have to say about your decisions.

Even if you are positive about your decisions, sometimes it is good to reflect on all the negative aspects of your decisions; in other words, to validate your decisions by asking yourself the question: “What are some of the reasons that I may be wrong about this?”

You don’t have to be a president of a country or a leader of an organization to have to make decisions. Knowingly or unknowingly, you make decisions every day in every aspect of your life, and these decisions may affect your life positively or negatively. 

Therefore, it is important to make the right decisions with clear thinking, self-confidence, and self-acceptance. Living in the present with mindfulness will help you make the right decisions.

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