You desperately want to go to sleep. You breath deep, try to clear your head and relax, but can’t. There is no sleep to be had, just tossing and turning and watching the clock. You have a very important decision to make and are completely stressed out.  You started thinking about this problem weeks ago, and in a couple weeks, you will have to actually make that final choice. During the day when you think about this conundrum, your heart races. At the end of the day, you feel exhausted and no closer to a solution.

We have all been here. Our minds whir, circling around the issue but never quite landing on a sure answer. We get frustrated, stress builds, and we are often left feeling defeated.

When we are out of our area of expertise, it’s common to put off making decisions. This is classic procrastination. Meanwhile, we secretly hope that the right decision will somehow come in a moment of inspiration…perhaps after we meditate, do yoga, or go for an endorphin-releasing run.

While mental and physical exercise can help clear the mind, they don’t treat the cause of anxiety. The dilemma remains, and the important decision still must be faced.

So what’s the solution?  Instead of hoping for inspiration, it’s better to have a methodical, but simple, plan for making the best decision every time, regardless of the topic.

Just like you can learn new meditation and yoga techniques, you can learn a method for making decisions that will release you from the vicious cycle of stress and procrastination and give you confidence to tackle big choices.

Even when there is a lot riding on it.

A practice for making decisions not only greatly increases your chances to get the outcome you desire, but also gives you confidence in your choice, knowing that you have considered all aspects. The result is always a better decision… and if you have done the work, the right decision, every time – with a lot less stress.

Briefly, the four key factors to consider before making any important decision are:

Timing
Probabilities
Balance
Pattern Recognition

TIMING

“You may delay, but time will not.” Benjamin Franklin

The first question to ask yourself is:

When do I need to make this decision?

Most important decisions are not driven by the calendar, including the decision to get married, get healthy, or re-examine your career. Set a deadline and give yourself cushion time to reflect on your tentative “final” decision. If your deadline is a month from now, make this “final” choice at least 1 week before the deadline. Set calendar alerts for the deadline and reminders leading up to it. Treat the self-imposed deadline as if it were mandatory.

Probabilities

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  Lewis Carroll

The right choice is the one with the best chance of getting you to your goal. Know exactly what you want.  Be very specific.  For example,  “leading a healthier lifestyle” may be a desire, but it is not a measurable goal. Losing 10 pounds and lowering your blood pressure 15 points are well-defined goals that will make progress trackable.

Balance

“He who wishes to fight must first count the cost.” Sun Tzu

What are you willing to give up to get what you want? It’s been proven that people focus more on rewards and underestimate cost and risks. This is especially true among investors. If reward equals risk, then make sure you have taken all risk and cost into consideration. People make the mistake of looking only at monetary costs. The highest cost is often your time. Are you willing to actually put in the effort required to achieve your goal?

Pattern Recognition

“I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.”  Patrick Henry

Pattern recognition can be complex, but the concept is easy. Here we look at past events to predict future outcomes. The evidence is overwhelming that smoking cigarettes is very harmful to your health. Does it mean you can never get cancer if you don’t smoke? No, but the evidence indicates that your chances of getting lung cancer are reduced by not smoking. Pattern Recognition looks at correlation and makes a clear distinction between relevance and causation.

Next time you have to make an important decision, consider these four factors and notice how much less stress you feel as a result. The more you practice, the more confident you will feel tackling big choices and soon you may start thinking of yourself as a decision-making expert!

For more information on great decision making, check out Michael Angelo Costa’s international bestseller: 
Never Be Wrong Again, Four Steps to Making Better Decisions In Work and Life (Thoreau Press, 2015) www.neverbewrongagain.com