Strengthening decisiveness in decision-making with 12 effective solutions

Decision-making is painful for people who do not have decisiveness and do not strengthen it in themselves. These people spend a lot of time and energy making unimportant decisions. When they need to make an important decision, they get into trouble. By reading this article, you will understand how to be decisive in all aspects of your life.

To make an entirely correct decision, we need two tools that humanity still needs to achieve: omniscience and a time machine! Only if we have this tool can we be aware of the results of our decisions and make the most correct decision.

The first principle of determination is knowing you can never make a perfect decision. No matter how light and heavy you make the options, you can always make a mistake.

When you overcome this flawed mindset that makes you fear the consequences of making a decision and makes you over-examine your options, you’ve taken an essential step toward being decisive. This wrong mentality results in energy waste, passivity, and even analysis paralysis.

In the following, you will learn tips that will help you to increase assertiveness in work, behaviour, relationships, and management.

1. Check how long the final result of the decision is effective.

The first step to becoming a decisive person is to examine how the result of the decision affects your well-being. Check the results of your decision in a week, a month, and a year later. Suppose the decision’s impact is significant in different time frames. In that case, you have the right to spend much time and energy considering it. Otherwise, spending too much time is prohibited! Some people even have trouble choosing food at a restaurant when it’s not an important decision!

Many people are paralyzed by the fear of the outcome when making a decision. Still, looking at the work over a longer time horizon, they realize that even the worst results have less impact after a while.

2. Use the “only available way” test.

When you are hesitating between several options, to be more decisive, imagine that there is only one path ahead of you, and you must choose it and then weigh the result. For example, if you need to decide whether to select China or Japan for your leisure trip, first think that China is the only option before you. How would you feel if China was the only destination you could choose for a trip?

Do the same test for Japan. How would you feel if Japan was the only city you could choose for a trip? Now you can select which one you prefer. If the result of checking both options is the same, their priority is the same, and it doesn’t matter which one you choose. So, without hesitation, buy your ticket and enjoy your trip!

3. Compare the results of different decisions.

Decision-making is not always easy, and even the most determined people cannot be ultimately decisive when making important decisions. One of the ways to choose the best option is to compare the results of different choices.

Imagine that you have been offered a new job and have to choose whether you want to change your career. Please write down the benefits of the current position and the new job and compare them. Continue this work until you are entirely sure that one of the jobs is better than the other and accepting it has more benefits or fewer losses for you. Of course, this comparison is hypothetical for changing jobs, and everything is based on possibilities. As we said before, we don’t have a time machine and can’t be sure!

4. Get more information

You need more information if you still can’t compare the different options. The type of information you get about the possibilities is also essential. For example, when choosing a job, checking whether a particular person has succeeded in that position is not correct information. You are entirely different from that person, and you will get different results. The information you need to review is the qualifications required to perform in that job position.

The increased information should help you consider your options more easily.

5. Check the possibility of running multiple options at the same time.

One of the ways to increase decisiveness is not to need to make a decision and to be able to implement several options simultaneously. When choosing a major, you may be interested in more than one area that may not be related to each other. For example, you love chemistry and painting simultaneously. Can’t you study chemistry at university and take design courses simultaneously? Or, when choosing a travel destination, can’t you plan to go to China and visit Japan?

6. Define your values

When the destination is clear, choosing the right path at crossroads becomes easy. Always remember your values ​​and missions when deciding to select an option that aligns with your goals.

For example, you know that product quality is valuable at your workplace. In that case, you will be decisive in management and oppose any proposal to produce a low-quality product, even if the cost is lower.

7. Decide in advance

Our mind has a specific capacity to make decisions during the day. When it is tired, its power of choice is significantly reduced. We have to plan what we spend this energy on, Choosing clothes or deciding on the direction of business development!

To decide in advance, it is better to spend an hour during the week and write down what you will eat for lunch and dinner every day or what clothes you want to wear that day. Do this once a week and save yourself from the daily struggle!

8. Get out of your mental comfort zone.

One of the most challenging decisions is choosing between something you’ve already done and something new and unknown. In this state, your brain tries to keep you in a safe and known mental zone. No wonder The task of the brain is to keep you alive, not to care about your happiness and success!

Imagine going on a date with someone you have never met before. When the meeting time approaches, you feel it is better to stay home and watch TV. If the date doesn’t go well, you probably say to yourself many times, that I wish I had stayed at home. You must choose unknowns and try them to get new achievements, and everything will either stay the same or worsen! The advantages of entering the unknown are far more significant than staying away from them.

Instead of fearing the adverse outcomes of the decision, think about what positive effects it might have.

9. Ask yourself: Is this the last time I can make this decision?

Answering this question is one of the best ways to increase assertiveness in work or behaviour. Many decisions you spend a lot of mental energy on are repeated repeatedly. If the worst outcome happens, you can learn from it and choose better options next time. For example, if you can’t decide which food to choose in a restaurant, think you can select again on other days. If you regret your decision, you can make up for it.

10. Trust your instincts

To learn how to be assertive, you need to build your self-confidence and trust yourself.

Logic has a special place in life, but the most important decisions are made based on intuition.

You must feel and hear your inner voice. This call tells you what the right decision is. Of course, sometimes the conditions are not ready to listen to the inner voice. A person is so overwhelmed with different thoughts and stresses that he completely forgets the voice of his heart and looks for an external person to tell him what to do. Instead of stress and tension, it is better to rest, sleep, or take a walk. When you are at peace, your inner voice can be heard clearly.

11. Set deadlines for your decisions

When you take too long to decide, you lose the power to make the right choice. Therefore, it is better to set a deadline for your decisions. This trick is also helpful for important life decisions. For example, if you plan to quit your current job and start your own business, you will hesitate for a long time. For determination in work, you can determine that when your capital reaches a certain amount, you will resign to start your own business.

12. Regret less!

One of the most important reasons for not being decisive in behaviour is having regrets.

• I wish I had not made this decision.
• I wish I had chosen another job.
• I hope I didn’t get into this relationship.
• I wish…

All these regrets will accompany us in new decisions and make us hesitate. Commit that even if the result of your decision is not good, you will not regret it. Spend a few hours regretting the wrong decision and be ready for a new life the following day!

last word

Assertiveness in relationships, work, or anything else comes from within us, and we can’t wait to become assertive after some mysterious incident. When you consciously practice deciding more decisively about any issue, over time, this trait will become part of your personality, and you will unconsciously become a decisive person.

Are you a decisive person? What do you consider effective in reaching determination?