We all need effective decision-making strategies to run a business, promote our products and elevate our brand. But we also need effective decision-making in our personal lives – to live better and be happier.
1. The Mechanics of Effective Decision-Making
The way effective decision-making works, in my view, wholly depends on two things:
- It depends on how you psychologically frame the problem you are facing
- And how much will-power you have to push through to act on your decision.
People fall short on one of these two items – or on both. We have all been there, and it sucks. It feel like we can’t get anything accomplished.
So let me share with you my effective-decision strategies to help you make the right decisions and to stick to them.
Read on to find what I personally do.
1. Psychology of Effective Decision-Making
I have written elsewhere on how to make any decision within 20 minutes. But making effective decision and sticking to those decisions is a different kind of animal.
We all know, more or less, what decisions we need to focus on. We know, for example, that we need to lose weight, or make progress on a report, or improve the sales process – yet, despite our ability to identify the kinds of decisions that we need to make in order move ahead on our goals, it always feels like we can’t stick to those decisions.
There are a few reasons for why we can’t stick to our decision regardless of how sharp our decision-making ability may be:
1.1 Pleasure and Pain
We don’t associate enough pain for NOT sticking to our decision and enough pleasure for sticking to it. For example, if you decide to go to the gym every Monday but you keep changing your mind at the last minute, then you probably haven’t associated the necessary amount of pain with skipping your workout.
In order to make more effective decisions, focus on what is important.
1.2 Immediate Reward
People don’t stick to their decisions because the desired reward is not immediate. When rewards are not immediate, our emotional brain can talk us out of our commitments. But if you approach your goals with the understanding that gratification is not immediate, you have a way to counteract your emotional brain.
1.3 Self-Discipline
Once the excitement of pursuing your goal dies down after the first few tries, you are likely to stop doing the work if you’re not disciplined. It takes a combination of will-power, discipline and a compelling vision for who you want to become in order for you stay on track and reach the goal you’re after.
** I have written a few posts on self-discipline and personal motivation, and it would help you to check them out. In this post, I want to go deeper into the pain-pleasure relationship and how it affects your decision making process.
2. The Pendulum Effect
Effective decision-making arises when there is a conflict between your emotional brain and your logical brain.
Swinging back and forth between your reasons to follow through on your original commitment and your reasons to take a break from it or postpone ti is an effect that I call, The Pendulum Effect Problem.
This effect takes place when the immediate gratification of, say the comfort of staying home and watching T.V, appears to you to be greater than the delayed gratification of losing 20 pounds in 3 months.
Your emotional brain will pick up on the presence of immediate gratification and will push you to seek it. That happens even when your logical brain recognizes the importance of sticking to your original plan.
So it seems that if you want to stick to your decisions, you have to find a way to stop this effect from taking place.
I’ve suggested elsewhere on this blog that the best way to take consistent action (and stay motivated) is to not think. Yes. You have to decide beforehand what you’re going to do and at what time you’re going to do it. And when the time comes, you simply take the action.
No thinking, no international dialogue, no negotiation.
Action.
3. Painless Effective Decision-Making?
Another important tool that can help you take action is the amount and degree of pain you connect with not taking action.
Let me share a short story with you about one client who had a problem with sticking to his financial goals and follow through on his decisions.
My client had a furniture business that was struggling to get off the ground. He had invested quite a bit of money in the setup process and spent the first 2 – 3 months manufacturing the furniture set he thought would appeal to customers. However, the launch didn’t go the way he expected. He sold a few pieces here and there, but not much to cover the operation costs.
He got in touch with me for help.
The first thing I asked him was if he was using the free online resources available to him to promote his products.
He said no.
I also asked him if he offered a special discount to newlyweds (and if he advertised the discount).
He answered no.
I also asked him if he offered a discount on his products for the holidays.
He said no, again!
So I finally asked, “Well, why aren’t you do any of these things?” They seem easy enough to do, I thought.
He answered that he didn’t think of about his business from that angle…He was busy with other things…
I understand that we all have commitments and that sometimes we have to attend to them before we take care of our business. But what surprised me the most about this client’s demeanor was that he didn’t experience any pain (or guilt) for not taking advantage of easy (and free) opportunities to promote and grow his business. He seemed a little nonchalant. And when you are nonchalant, you will miss opportunities and you will lose your money.
But if you associate pain with failing to take advantage of every opportunity, then you will take this shortcoming very, very seriously. You will also create mechanisms to help you stay on top of your business and stick to your goals and decisions.
4. Be Serious about Your Decision-Making
The same goes for going to the gym. If you don’t associate a certain amount of guilt or pain for not going, you will probably not go. You will “get busy” with other things.
Take the opportunities that come your way very seriously. Don’t take it lightly. In fact, if you’re not feeling bad about giving up the opportunities that come your way, then you will keep making the same mistakes and drive what could’ve been a great business or a great personal farther and farther out of reach.
Make your business and your decisions more personal, and your situation can improve.