We each face about 70 decisions a day.
The mere thought of all these forks in the road might be enough to activate a bout of Woody Allen-style neuroticism. But don’t sweat it. The bulk of our choices are tiny.
Think: what brand of museli to buy, whether to have a second coffee or not, and what colour wrapping paper to wrap your niece’s gift in.
It’s the big ones that warrant more thought.
Often these decisions are a variation on the ‘whether to go or stay’ scenario. They can apply to our careers, our relationships and the places in which we live. And they’re stressful because such choices matter –they dictate the direction in which our lives travel.
For this reason it pays to be “choosy about choosing”, says Sheena Iyengar, social psychologist and author of the Art of Choosing.
As the Hult International Business School in the U.S reports, Iyengar believes we have a “modern day choosing problem”, due to the overwhelming amount of options at our disposal.
Old wisdom would have us ‘listening to our guts’ and writing a list of pros and cons.
This advice still holds sway, but the truth is that most of us try to do these things and still our thoughts run on spin cycle – we turn the same problems inside out while an allmagical outcome remains elusive.
The ‘new science of choosing’ offers the following suggestions for making clear decisions.
1. Visualise outcomes
When choosing between options, flesh out a prediction of what might happen in each scenario.
As Iyengar says via Hult Business School, “In order for people to understand the differences between their choices, they have to be able to understand the consequences associated with each choice, and the consequences have to be felt in a vivid sort of way.”
To do this, try sitting somewhere quiet, closing your eyes and devoting ten minutes to visualising the likely outcome of each choice.
2. Activate the ‘or’ trigger
Therese Schwenkler is the founder of heralded personal development resource Unlost. She suggests allowing the word ‘or’ (should I move to Perth or Brisbane?) to trigger you to stop and ask: do I really have to choose one option or the other?
Imploring us not to fall prey to the illusion that only two options exist, she writes: “If we’re only looking at things through an either/or lens, then we’re almost certainly blinding ourselves to alternative options that might just prove superior.”
From there ask the following two questions. What might you do if you couldn’t do either? And what if you could do both?
3. Engage the 10/10/10 rule
The brainchild of Suzy Welch, author of 10-10-10: A life-transforming idea, the ‘10’ rule asks you to put options through the following ringer: what are the consequences of my idea in a)10 minutes, b) 10 months, and c) 10 years?
Take ‘side work’ as an example, as Schwenkler does. Say you’re self-employed and you have a big project you want to complete, but are routinely faced with having to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to commissioned work on the side.
A new commission might come your way. It pays well, but it drags you away from your big project.
In 10 minutes you might feel more financially secure, but in 10 months you might feel restless because the decision has inhibited your ability to work on the bigger project. And in 10 years you may feel regret for not fully committing yourself to a pursuit that really mattered to you.
The 10/10/10 rule keeps smaller choices aligned with bigger goals.
Clear as crystal.
What's your number 1 tip to making clear decisions? Tell us in the comments section below.
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