A decision can be quite easy or hard depending on what the decision is about. Well, easy or hard, there is always a result which would affects our lives individually or other aspects of our lives. Decision making is a thing that is ought to be developed overtime, I beleive a person's level of decision making should always improve as they grow (since life gets more serious as we grow into adulthood). As we grow, we have experiences, heard of stories, listened to others, read books, watched movies, got advices from older persons, etc which would in a way shape our approach to making decisions.
First of, I am not a deep thinker, I have never been one. I rather sit and meditate on what I am about to do, though, I rarely stay so long on any decisions: no matter how important they may seem to be (except for some few). This habit of not staying too long on any decisions has affected me in some bad ways which I learned from.
But these are the major things I consisder when making decisions....
Time: how fast do I need to make the decision is one of the very first thing I consisder.
Available Options: I think about all possible options, merge some together and try to get the best of them all. You would agree with me that sometimes even the best option(s) aren't actually the best but the only one that is more favorable.
Advantages and Disadvantages: I tend to not just go with the options alone, I check the ones with more advatages or benefits. The advantage might be less stress, lesser time, more money, lesser money, or anything just better.
Importance: Another thing I consisder is the importance of what I am making decision on. The weight of the situation might make me decide faster or just chill till the time is right. I really do not waste time on any decision, I just have a way of deciding juat a little bit faster and I think it is because I hate to worry about a thing for long: it stresses me a lot.
Asking For Advice: No man is an Island of knowledge. I seek advice from friends, my parent and siblings or those who I perceive to have the knowledge on a particular thing. Asking for help could make it easier or faster to make the right decisions as people could share of their knowledge or experiences with you.
Prayer: Christians would relate better with this. I pray about the right decision to make when it is a very crucial one. I sometimes fast and pray waiting on the Lord for right intrusctions. When I receive, I just act on it immediately.
HOW I COPE
Like Creativepearl said in her post, "No need to cry over a spilt milk" I just paraphrased though. I don't often worry about a wrong decision I made if I have learned my lesson, known the reason why it was wrong and also how I could avoid such in the nearest future. Like I said earlier, worrying about a thing stresses me so much that I become uncomfortable. So knowing myself, I would rather chill than to worry. And there are few instances where I moved on after making a really bad decision.
I was teaching in a primary school and I got my admission in the school of my choice. I didn't even wait for the resumption date to be announced before resigning from the teaching job. The university I gained admission into prolonged its resumption date for about 3 months (I thought school will resume next month after the admission list was released). I stayed home for 3 months without salary waiting for resumption and I couldn't go to the school management to explain what happened.
I do not worry when I knew I had made the wrong decision. Hopefully, I left everything else to play out just fine