The Importance Of Being Decisive & How To Become More Decisive

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What do you want for dinner tonight? Quick, decide right now. Odds are, unless you’re a meal planner, I just asked you one of the hardest questions to answer, well, ever. Being indecisive is, in a single word, sucky. It makes you feel, nervous, out of control, and doubtful of every step you make. You’re constantly worrying if you made the wrong decision and you never trust the decision you make. When you’re decisive though, it’s like your world opens up. You become confident in yourself and your choices. You can make decisions in a split second. Nights will be spent restfully in a deep sleep, instead of tossing and turning.

How do I know? Well, I use to be the Queen of Wavering. Making simple decisions were like pondering huge moral quandaries every single day. It was an endless “if, then” puzzle that once led me to spending 5 minutes standing in the grocery store aisle googling the different between two ingredients on a box label (that made zero impact on my life later). In the last few years, all of that has changed though. I’ve learned how to make quick, intelligent decisions. I don’t stress anymore and once decisions are made, I’m free to let them go. Obviously I’m not perfect and nothing works out every time, but I certainly feel much better about it now. So now, I’m ready to share what I’ve learned with you.

Abercrombie and Fitch Crop Top: Similar, Similar
Loft Skirt: Same
Old Navy Heels: Same
Loft Sandals: Similar

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Abercrombie and Fitch Crop Top: Similar, Similar
Loft Skirt: Same
Old Navy Heels: Same
Loft Sandals: Similar

What Does It Mean To Be Decisive?

Are we getting technical or personal here? Personally, it means that you’re making a defined stance on a decision that needs to be made. If we want to get technical and head over to the dictionary, they say “settling an issue; producing a definite result.” or “having or showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.” Good to see the dictionary and I agree!

The Importance of Being Decisive

I talked a little bit about this in the opening, but it’s really important to be decisive and making a good decision faster. You may think not being decisive won’t effect you, but in actuality, it will affect you in all aspects of your life.

Relationships

Imagine that you’re going on a date and you ask your date if he wants to get Thai or Italian for dinner. Except he can’t decide. Then you ask him to pick a movie. Again, he can’t pick one, so you pick two and ask him if he has a preference. Again, he can’t choose. Finally, you ask if he’d be interested in getting ice cream after the movie and he spends 10 minutes debating with himself. Now, these examples are all a little extreme, but just imagine day after day you ask your partner what he wants for dinner and he can’t decide. It’s something very little, but after a while, it might get kind of annoying, right?

Now, what if you’re the person in your friend group who frequently wont’t commit to plans? Yes, that’s an example of not being decisive and yeah, it may getting annoying after awhile. Even if you just say no, being decisive in all of these situations may go a long way in helping your relationships.

Workplace

The workplace is all about decision making. Decisions need to be made every day to keep a business running. Should this email be sent? Does this document look okay? Is our budget balanced? What can we do to hit our goals this year? There’s no room for indecision in the workplace. Yes, you might make some bad choices, but the alternative is no choices, which is also referred to as not doing your work. And last I checked, not doing your work will get you fired. You can learn how to be decisive at work and trust me, the good decisions will quickly follow

Leadership

Since we’ve been getting technical today, if you look up a leader in the dictionary, it’s defined as someone who commands a group. To command a group, you need to know what’s best for a group and where they need to go. You’re there to be decisive about decisions for a larger group of people. You need to be there to answer questions and know whats best for the group. If you can’t make the decisions big or small, you won’t succeed as a leader.

How To Be More Decisive

Alright, so we’ve talked about what being decisive is and why it’s important to be decisive, so now we’re going to get to the good part: How to be more decisive.” For me, being more decisive actually came really easily when I started knowing and doing these things:

Know Your Values

Knowing your values is really important to me. It’s about knowing the aspects of life that matter and you highly value. Your values can shift, so if they do, don’t worry about it! As you grow and change, so will your values! When you’re in your early 20s, you may care more about going out at night and sleeping away Sunday. But when you’re older, you may prefer to forgo going out at night in favor of waking up early on Sunday. The important part is just knowing what those values are so you can stay true to them.

Always Consider Your Goals

Your goals are in fact different from your values, so let’s clear that up first. Your goals should always have a measurable objective attached to them. Values never have a measurable objective. When you’re making a decision, just do a quick check, does this have any thing to do with one of my goals? Does my decision go against any of my goals? Just make sure that everything is in alignment before you barrel on ahead.

Listen to Your Gut

Listening to your gut is what’s going to help the most with making decisions faster. It’s the first answer that screams at you when you hear the question. You may want to ignore it, but that first answer is typically right, isn’t it? If you want to take an extra minute, to think it over, then fine. But only take a minute and then go with your gut and move on. Just trust your gut and you’ll (almost) always win.

Be Present In Situations

This is very similar to the idea of reading the room. You don’t want to be the person who zones out in a meeting and then snaps back to attention and volunteers to movie to Tulsa (a la Chandler in Friends). Just like you don’t want to be the person who has to make a decision for the group but has been planning dinner for the last 15 minutes. Wherever you are, be there.

Don’t Fear Failure

I said this earlier in the post, but you need to remember that your decisions aren’t always going to be right….but that’s okay. You can’t let the fear of being wrong stop you from making decisions. Instead remember that being wrong is another chance to learn from your mistakes and make better decisions next time.

Avoid Decision Fatigue

I feel like people don’t talk about decision fatigue enough, but it’s a real thing. Think about it, you make a lot of decisions throughout the day. Should I turn off my alarm or should I snooze it? Should I wear this skirt or this dress for work? Where should I go for lunch? Should I work out after work? It’s a lot and it’s probably why a lot of people become indecisive. So what have I done to avoid decision fatigue in the long term? I’ve cut a lot of decisions out of my daily life. It sounds weird, but hear me out. I pack my breakfasts and lunches for work everyday, so I don’t have to decide what to eat or if I should buy or make something.

I also follow the same routine for getting ready in the morning, so my body can do that on autopilot and not have to make any decisions about that. I’ve even narrowed it down to what podcasts to listen to. It sounds silly, but these little things have gotten rid of big decisions that most people need to make every day. It allows me to redicrect my decision making to more important things and helps me make decisions faster in those areas.

By implementing these five things into your life you can learn how to be more decisive and start making decisions fast!

Photos by Kimberly Graydon