A person who knows how to make the right decisions at the right time favouring the circumstances is someone who has better chances at succeeding than others. Decisiveness is the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.
“Harness your emotional energy to make a decision and never regret”
The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision, thus a decision can change the whole life like nothing else. The most important or core quality of humans is to be able to make decisions.
In order to make decisions efficiently, one should gather all the necessary information, analyse the facts involving the situation properly, consider all possibilities, and then decide the best course of action and do it quickly and correctly. There shouldn’t be any procrastination at all in order to be efficacious.
Why is decisiveness important?
A decision has the power to shape a person’s reality. It is that particular decision which will affect a person’s destiny or the near future at least. Decisiveness can be viewed as a key which can open doors of any and every kind, be it successfully executing plans, achieving goals or even being able to invest in great deals.
Even for a business to be successful, a leader of the team handling the operations of the organisation should be decisive in nature. Making decisions that are well informed and time-sensitive is a prominent part of being a successful leader.
Only then there would be any chances of the business not only surviving but striving towards achieving profits as well as growth.
How a decision impacts a person’s life?
Brain’s decision making part is associated with the frontal lobe. Decisiveness triggers many emotions in a person’s brain. It takes a lot of emotional energy to take a righteous decision. Emotions like indecisiveness, regret and guilt absorb an enormous amount of emotional energy which could be better directed towards building a better life forward.
Bad decisions are like a constant case of hiccups. It’s troublesome, distracting and slows down a person’s growth. But unlike the hiccup, it’s within the person’s boundary and capacity to eliminate this distraction of constantly making wrong choices or not deciding anything at all by becoming decisive.
Elements of Decisiveness
There are four elements of Decisiveness:
Speed
speed concerning decisiveness means how much time it takes for a person to finally make a decision. There is a fine line between taking adequate time to think or pause and holding back somehow during the process of decision making.
Importance
It is the degree of value that the particular decision holds upon the lives of people or anything else that will be affected by it.
Rightness
It is one of the most important elements of decisiveness to be able to differentiate between a right and a wrong decision. If somehow a person makes the wrong decision it is important to understand that there will always be consequences whether large scale or with a small scale impact.
Commitment
It is the promise to make a decision no matter how difficult or heartbreaking it may be.
Decision-making using decisiveness is a four-step process:
1. Describe the problem in a sentence or two
Whenever trying to decide something try and cut it short by summarising the issue into a line or two at maximum. (e.g., Should I eat ice cream or the salad?).
2. Outline your options
Try and think about the different aspects related to the effects, consequences and outlook of different choices concerning their outcomes(e.g., the ice cream is tasty but the salad is fresh and healthy).
3. Pick a side or make the decision
You will make a better choice if you stay confident, it’s not easy but it is worth it. For example, I’m going to eat the ice cream—it makes me feel happier.
4. Once you’ve made your decision, move on! Don’t revisit it
try and feel confident about your decision, it will only strengthen you.
Voice Within
There’s a wise voice inside you that needs to be heard for guidance—it is that voice which directs you away from impulsive decisions and inclines you towards productive one.
It’s somewhere in there, one just needs to be calm and quiet and not let the anxiety create any hindrance in hearing that voice. Often your first instinct is the right one. Just don’t confuse impulsiveness with decisiveness.
Conclusion
Making decisions is a hard aspect of life. What stops a person from being decisive is the fear of regret. Regret is one of the bitterest and harshest of emotions because it means that it was once within the person power to make a different decision which would have resulted in a better outcome but now that ship has sailed.
One should always keep in mind that even the people who tend to be very strong and wilful can also be seen standing at crossroads not being able to make any decisions.
It’s simply because at some point in life everyone feels weak in the knees before taking a step further thinking about what the future beholds if I choose this path? Or am I doing the right thing by not choosing that one?
Many times one tends to live life on decisions made by someone else such as parents or any other close influential person in life. But why do people do this? Because maybe it feels safe somehow like a GPS.
When we don’t know the complete route we tend to put our blind faith in decisions made by others but what we forget is that even the GPS can go wrong sometimes.
Do check these blogs to know more about soft skills:
- Delegation
- Decisiveness
- Teamwork
By Dhairya Khilvani
