Choose to read our 8 tips on how to make decisions
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Should you jump up out of bed or hit the snooze button? Go for a run or watch Netflix? Move away or stay in your hometown? Every day we’re spoiled for choice. Having a lot of options can be really stressful sometimes. Especially with the big life decisions, you want to get it right. But even small, everyday decisions can have an impact on whether you achieve your personal goals, such as sustaining a healthier, active lifestyle. But don’t worry about it! Learning how to make decisions is an art that can be practiced. We’ll talk about what role your intuition plays and share some of our tips to make your next decision easier.
How to make decisions: What’s behind it?
We make up to 20,000 decisions a day. That is quite a lot! Of course, not all decisions are the same. Some are easy to make and don’t have a big impact on your life, while others require more thought and involve big changes. But most decisions are made unconsciously and at lightning speed. And for good reason! Automating the decision-making process, because it saves time and energy, has evolutionary benefits. In an emergency situation, a quick decision can be crucial for survival.
These days, there are more choices than ever. We can add things to our shopping cart with just one click. And on the larger scale, career options and courses of study – to take a few examples – are ever expanding. How can you ever decide on just one thing?
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Having multiple options to choose from is a privilege and a sign of freedom, but sometimes it can also be a pain to decide. Because making a choice means closing the door to other options, so it’s understandable to be afraid of making the wrong decision and regretting it afterwards. The good news is that making decisions can be practiced. But before we give you the practical tips, let’s first find out whether you should rely more on your mind or your gut feeling when making decisions.
Gut vs. head: What role do emotions play in decisions?
When you have to make an important decision, you usually take your time and gather arguments for and against it. But especially with complex decisions that take many factors into account, there’s a risk of getting bogged down by the details. And that’s where the so-called gut feeling comes into play.
You probably know this, the body signal that tells you whether a tough decision feels good or not, from your own experience. Some call it intuition, others describe it as a tingling in the stomach. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio calls such signals “somatic markers.”1 According to the somatic marker hypothesis, people internalize emotional experiences in their bodies. These experiences influence later decisions. What does that mean exactly?
Every event in your life can be linked to certain emotions and stored in your memory as pleasant or unpleasant. When you’re faced with a difficult decision, you unconsciously compare your options with any previous, similar experiences. If your subconscious recognizes a similar scenario, you may feel this as a certain ‘body signal’ and evaluate the option as good or bad, accordingly.
Does that mean you should always go with your gut instincts? Not necessarily. It’s all in the mix. Sometimes our gut feeling can also lead us astray, if we’re facing something brand new. Therefore, you’re best off weighing in the facts as well.
Why is it hard to make decisions?
Almost every decision has some nuances. Making a decision is most often difficult, that’s for sure. How hard or easy you find a decision depends on several key factors. One of them is the time frame. Is it a short-term or long-term thing? Also, it matters how many options are available to you. The more options, the trickier the decision. How much the outcome may affect your future self is also an important factor.
But above all, a difficult decision is characterized by the fact that all of the options are equal. In short, not one option seems better than the other. What to do? In such cases, it makes sense to ask yourself what is most important in order to justify a difficult decision for yourself. This also means that you must take complete responsibility for your decision, which requires courage and self-reflection.
To gain more clarity about what you really want in the future, and thus make better decisions, pay attention to avoid the following decision-making mistakes.
Typical decision-making errors
#1 You let others’ expectations drive your decisions
First things first: You can’t please everyone. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take your fellow human beings into consideration, but you also shouldn’t disregard yourself and your needs. If you base your decisions entirely on fear, or on the expectations of others, it becomes difficult to live a happy life.
#2 You completely ignore your emotions
If your mind and your gut feeling don’t align, your doubts won’t subside even after you’ve made your choice. If you don’t have a good feeling, push the question. Delve into your worries for more information. When you’re unsure, look inwards and analyze your emotional responses, in addition to the factual arguments. How do you feel and why do you feel this way?
#3 You have an either-or attitude.
Often you don’t have to choose between one extreme or the other – you can find a happy medium. Ask yourself, what would that middle ground that would satisfy you look like?
#4 You think it’s “life and death”
If you assign a disproportionate importance to the possible outcome of one decision, you make the choice more difficult for yourself. Of course, there are important decisions that can greatly affect your life. But remember that you are still in control of your life after this one gets made, and you are capable of making other decisions in the future.
8 tips to make tough decisions easier
Even if it’s not always easy, it’s important to make a final decision in the end. Dwelling for longer than necessary can cost a lot of time and energy, make you feel overwhelmed, and keep you from achieving your goals. Worst case, someone else makes the decision for you. That’s why it’s important to take initiative and to trust yourself, then commit. We’ll show you how to do that with these complex decision making tips:
#1 Stay true to your values
Try to act independently and not be influenced by external factors. After all, you are the one who has to “live” with your decision. Define your wishes and goals clearly, so it’s easier for you to decide appropriately. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself.
#2 Change your perspective and dare to try something new
Most decision makers tend to go for the familiar because it gives them a sense of security. But that isn’t always the right choice. Be open to new experiences, gather information, weigh all your options, and then dare to leave your comfort zone. After all, if you always do the same thing and avoid making tough decisions, you can’t evolve. Even if in retrospect you might not have made your best decision, it can open new doors for you or reveal possibilities that you might not have thought of before.
To get a different perspective on how to make decisions, ask yourself how you would advise a friend in a similar dilemma. We often see things more clearly for other people than for ourselves.
#3 Make a pro and con list
Sounds like a cliché! But sometimes thinking through the pros and cons can help you make a decision based on the broader overview: you can identify the advantages and consequences of all the possible options neatly in front of you. Plus, this way, you’ll give a lot of thought to how useful each option might be.
If you have the same number of arguments for and against on your list, rank them according to importance. Try assigning numbers from one to three to each point, where three means very important and one means less important. Then add up all the points and find out which column carries the most weight.
#4 Don’t lose sight of your goal
Sometimes you have to make decisions that seem unpleasant in the current moment or that you don’t feel like making, but that serve a specific goal. In other words, the best solution isn’t the most comfortable one.
Let’s say your goal is to have a healthy lifestyle. But you don’t feel like making the effort to prepare a fresh meal or follow through with your workout. If you decide to postpone your workout or reach for a sugary snack, you won’t be able to reach your goal in the long run. As a consequence, you stay dissatisfied. Therefore: Don’t lose sight of your goal, and adjust other everyday decisions around it.
Our tip: For more healthy, balanced meal inspiration, check out our free recipe collection. Bon Appetit!
#5 Practice makes perfect
This is a skill you can practice! Try to consciously make smaller decisions more often in everyday life to make it easier to make the larger, more difficult decisions and thus train your “decision muscle.” For example, you can actively shape the evening with your friends yourself. Stretch past your comfort zone step by step.
#6 Don’t be afraid to make bad decisions
Nobody’s perfect. Mistakes are part of one’s own development. Don’t be afraid to make the wrong decision, because each choice you make is one that made sense for you at the time. Most of the time, there is no absolutely “wrong” choice. Try to act according to your best knowledge, conscience, and intuition. Do more research if you need, but don’t get mired down. It’s also important to learn to forgive yourself for any less-than-optimal outcomes, and to recognize any outside factors that may have influenced your decision making process.
#7 Do a thought experiment
Play out in your mind’s eye what happens if you decide this way and not another. What feelings does this idea trigger in you? Visualization helps you to better assess your own feelings and to let your gut feeling flow into the decision.
#8 Reduce stress
If possible, try not to make decisions when you’re feeling anxious about it. We don’t often advise our friends to “sleep on it” for nothing. While you sleep, your subconscious processes complex information important for decision-making. This works especially well if your mind has already collected all of the facts.
However, if you do find yourself needing to make a decision quickly in a stressful situation, try not to let the situation overwhelm you and take a few deep breaths before making your choice.
Summary
- You have to make decisions every day and most of the time you do this in a flash and unconsciously.
- Your emotions play an important role in decision-making. In addition to considering factual arguments, it can also help to trust your own intuition.
- Difficult choices are characterized by all options being equally good.
- A hard decision is one you have to be able to justify to yourself and figure out what you really want.
- A thought experiment, a change of perspective, sleeping on it for a night, or even a classic pros and cons list can help you decide.
Sources for this article
We at foodspring use only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial policy to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
- 1A. R. Damasio (1996): The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex. In Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences. Volume 351, Issue 1346. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rstb.1996.0125↩
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