The Nature of Taking Decisions

Every day we make decisions. Some of them are trivial, others can change your life. But why is decision-making often particularly difficult for us? It is often because we do not know if we should listen to the stomach or head. Why make decisions but is important for a happy life?

How to Make the Right Decisions?

Humans make about 20,000 decisions every day. Starting with getting up in the morning, choosing lunch, or making important decisions in the job, our whole life is a series of decisions. Some of them are instantaneous, others require a lot of time and attention. Our gut helps us to make spontaneous judgments. But sometimes it makes sense to let his head decide. Nevertheless, one should not only rely on the mind, but also listen to the feelings. For most of the time, it's the mix of intuition and headache that leads us to success in terms of decision-making.

Anyway, in most cases, it will not be until later that we've made the right decision. Especially when the choice of an option has far-reaching consequences, we are happy to postpone decisions. On the one hand, it's good to think about important things. On the other hand, it is often the bad conscience that then plagues us incessantly. 

Researchers found that rational choice is not always the right choice. Instead, there are many good reasons for combining your head and your emotions. Of course, that is no guarantee that we always take the right path. But there are a few ways to make your decisions easier:

• Reduce Complexity: Instead of deferring hard decisions forever, you should set a fixed time by making your decision. Until then, you have enough time to weigh all the information, options, and consequences to make better decisions.
• Decide consciously: Do not choose the alternative that is expected of you! Instead, you should consciously choose those options that YOU really want.
• Observe Emotions: Pay attention in the decision-making process to which option triggers which emotion in the! Often the first choice is the better decision.
• Enlightening the mind: complex decisions in particular often require a rational approach. Writing a pros and cons list is a good way to see the facts on a topic more clearly.
• Sleeping about it : The fear of making big decisions is often so overwhelming that we lose sight of the essentials. In sleep, however, the brain has the opportunity to process the events of the day and to sort the thoughts.

Dare to make decisions on unfamiliar terrain, we are usually particularly difficult. But maybe you also have to break new ground in order to reach your goal? The sign 'follow your head' or 'follow your heart' should be read on two signposts.

Why are Long-Term Decisions Particularly Difficult for Us?

Whether it's choosing the right job or making political decisions to make a long-term decision in the short term, it often puts us in a dilemma. The problem: to make decisions here and now, but whose results we see only in the future, is unsatisfactory. Finally, the brain strives for instant rewards through quick sense of achievement. 

• Make compromises: Be aware that you can not always pursue your original plan. Maybe other options are not always the first choice, but often they bring you to your destination.
• Take time out: If the decision-making stress takes over, take a moment to reorganize your thoughts. So the risk of making a wrong decision is lower.
• Change perspective: Consider the situation from a different angle in order to rationally balance all alternatives.
• Eliminate sources of interference: External factors such as fears, opinions and assumptions prevent us from only paying attention to the relevant information. Only when peace has come, you should make heavy decisions.

Conclusion

Be it in love, in the job or for the child, as a grown person you have to make a life-long decision - for yourself and for others. Which decision we attach importance, which is usually up to us. No wonder then that we often do not know until the end whether we have taken the right path. But the positive thing about it is that we can learn something from the worst decision.We collect valuable experiences that could be useful to us later in life. After all, no one will deliberately commit the same mistake twice. Often it is the wrong decisions that help us to find out who we really are and what we really want. However, you should not lie to yourself, but be aware that you have made a wrong decision. Self-deception, whitewashing and self-righteousness will not make you happier in the long run. Instead, they usually stop and hinder us in our personal development.