Every day you’re responsible for making decisions in a variety of areas in your life from work to relationships to what you want for dinner.
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Some people prefer to make decisions based on intuition, others prefer to analyze all the data they have available and some make decisions on the spur of the moment, on impulse if you will. This blog entry is for those decision makers.
Making decisions on impulse isn’t necessarily a bad way of making decisions; however, there are certain dangers that should never be ignored.
As a therapist working here in Fairfax, I see a lot of impulsive decision-making clients, some of these clients are struggling with addictions, and other clients of mine are simply impulsive decision makers.
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They have one issue in common, though; they all make poor impulsive decisions at times. One reason why their poor decision-making is based on a substance abuse counseling principle known as the HALT Principle.
The origin of this principle is not quite clear to me so I cannot cite a specific reference, it has been around in the substance abuse counseling field for a while and is a staple in teaching people how to avoid substance abuse relapse.
HALT is an acronym which stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. Why is this important? When we make decisions, we need to make decisions that are positive for us and our lifestyle. When we are in the throes of one of these particular states (or feeling many of these states), we tend to make poor life decisions. For instance, have you ever been so hungry that you stopped and ate at a fast food restaurant, just to stop the hunger pains? Or have gone grocery shopping while hungry and purchased a ton of junk food you would not ordinarily purchase?
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You were in the throes of hunger and therefore, your decision-making ability was compromised. The same issue exists while feeling tired from lack of rest or feeling lonely or angry (I’m sure you never made a poor decision while angry at someone, right?).
The point is that when we need to “check-in” with ourselves before we make a decision, especially major life-altering decisions. How are you feeling at that moment? Are you experiencing one these HALT states? If so, maybe you should hold off making a decision so that you can rectify that particular state (e.g. get some sleep, eat a healthy meal, talk to a friend, etc.).
This can be difficult for impulsive decision-making folks, but not impossible. It takes a certain amount of willingness to cultivate Emotional Intelligence though. What is Emotional Intelligence you ask? I guess that will have to be another blog!
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