Decision-making is part of our daily activities knowingly or unknowingly, you wake up in the morning, decide on what to eat, put on, and the places to visit or stay at home, these are just some normal and minor decision-making, and there will always come moments when we have to pause and carefully analyze the situation and consequences of the decisions we make before implementing them, because we know making the right or wrong decision can have a great positive or negative impact on us, and sometimes, loved ones around us are affected as well by this decision.
Lately, I've been faced with making these kinds of major decisions, sometimes, I have to sacrifice my satisfaction or happiness to get things done, and other times the aim of the decision I make is to make sure I get the utmost satisfaction, What I do first is to Critically analyze the situation, why am I making it and what do I aim to achieve, what are the consequences to making this decision, this is more like defining the problem so I am well informed on how to solve it,
Next is the cost, as most major decisions usually come at a cost, whether financially, emotionally, physically, or otherwise. Can I afford the cost? How will it affect other parts of my life if I go ahead and make this decision? Imagine someone makes a decision to build a house and doesn't even have enough money to afford the foundation, he probably just has the land alone, yes, some people have successfully built their house with nothing but have had to lay a plan down on how they would complete such project, and not just jump at it without proper decision-making process. Obviously, my life isn't all about this one part, and maybe it even is, so making sure you can afford the decision you are about to make or have plans on how to afford it within a time range is a necessary factor.
The next step I usually take is exploring other alternatives or better still keeping a plan B in place if life has taught me one thing, it is that 'we can't always put all our eggs in one basket, you can't even trust people these days talk more of other things, so any decision you make should always have a plan B in case one option fails, you can always fall to the other.
We can't also forget that there usually are risks involved in making major decisions, if you can't absorb the risk and move on it's better not to make it, but keep in mind that most great projects were achieved after several risks, and failure till they become successful at it, the idea is you learn from your previous mistakes and come back better.
Finally, what is the essence of laying a well thought out plan without executing it, most of us have so many decisions we want to make in our heads and even have strategies on how to implement them, but without taking the necessary action, it remains an idea and the expected goal you desire cannot be met.
Image used is mine