"Always remember that the toughest decisions are usually the right ones!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
It's difficult to make difficult decisions!
That doesn't' mean they shouldn't be made - because the very action of not making the decision will make the impact of the decision even bigger, one way or another.
I wrote about this reality some years ago. noting that "life is a wonderful voyage, often rudely interrupted by the need to make difficult, complex, sometimes staggering decisions." Today's post offers up a number of things that come with the territory:
- Stop obsessing with difficult decisions
- Stop chasing decision perfection
- Stop being overwhelmed by the scope of a decision
- Stop delaying making decisions!
- Learn to live with your decisions
- Learn how to simplify complex decisions
- Refuse to live in fear of making decisions!
That's some good, general guidance in how to deal with complex situations. In that context, have you ever thought about how you might challenge your innovation and creativity capabilities by concentrating a little more on what you can do to get better at managing those decisions?
- first and foremost, don't seek perfection in the decisions you have to make
- turn a complex decision into several simple ones by breaking it down into smaller ones
- refuse to be overwhelmed by the potential implications of a wrong decision - you can always 'pick up the pieces'later!
- don't fear making the decision - be afraid of not making it
- don't let the deferral of decisions lead you into a state of 'aggressive indecision'
- try and avoid the decision paralysis that comes from having a committee involved in all decisions
- in a fast-paced world, take some pride in your ability to focus on making faster decisions
- make a conscious decision to get a little bit better at making decisions in the absence of clarity
- with that in mind, don't seek perfection of information in your decisions - make them within the imperfect information that is available to you at that moment in time
- concentrate on the fact that making a decision is a key element of risk-taking, and just as you will learn from the potential failure that comes with risk, you'll also have an opportunity to learn from the incorrect decisions you make along the way
- last but not least, remember that decisions simply help you to establish guideposts for your process through this thing called life - they're incredibly necessary for navigation!
Always think of this way - difficult decisions are like physical exercise - they may hurt in the moment, but make you stronger in the long run!
Futurist Jim Carroll sometimes still struggles with complex decisions, despite the guidance that he offers.