Making Better Decisions

Do you sometimes make quick decisions that come back to haunt you? Do you often find that your emotions get the better of you when making critical choices? Do you sometimes jump to conclusions based on previous experience or prejudices?

I know that these problems can adversely affect our decision making at times. However, by learning, mastering and employing the decision-making frameworks that deliver critical thinking processing skills, you can minimize the risk of any of these factors impacting on your own decision making.

Think about developing the following habits around your decision making:

• Give yourself time to get the full picture of the circumstances in and around the decision that needs to be made.
• Ask others for help in making important decisions.
• Use an ordered, common sense approach to reaching decisions.
• Take time to carefully frame the problem, before deciding what action you need to take.
• Understand that often the situation that requires you to make the decision can be much more complex than you may initially think. Be sure to analyze it fully.
• Once you have analyzed the situation appropriately, be sure that you make the decision and follow through on it.