It’s easy to get hung up when faced with a tough decision, because of the major tradeoffs involved. Having a process for simplifying complicated decisions can help you make better choices more easily.Photo by aigle_dore
Sometimes complicated decisions seem too big to handle. What career should you choose? Is it time to get married or start a family? How to best take care of an aging parent? And so on.
The Dumb Little Man blog offers 10 tips for simplifying complicated decisions like these. Some of the steps help to take the pressure off of making these big decisions — e.g. recognise when a decision is reversible and consider that a choice won’t make or break the universe. Other steps help to clarify your choices: identify the best and worst thing about each choice and look for a possible third option.
Although all of the tips can help you tackle a tough decision, the first two recommendations are particularly insightful:
1. Be debt-free
Money will play into most of the choices you make. If you don’t have debt, you can put less emphasis on the financial element of your decision.
2. Don’t ask everyone about what you should do.
If you ask 5 people to give you their opinion, you will get 5 different answers. That input will lead to second guessing and confusion. Consult the people who will be directly affected by your decision and let everyone else know what you’ve decided, with confidence.
How do you make big decisions?
How to Simplify a Complicated Decision [Dumb Little Man]
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