SUPRA STRESS PREVENTION

DECISION MAKING SKILLS

Choose to make a decision.

Every waking second in our lives, we keep making decisions.

“What time should I get up in the morning?”

It is a decision we make the previous night so that we can face the challenges of modern living.

Once we get up, we have hundreds of choices to make. All these choices are based on the decision-making process.

Decisions that help us

All of us know how to make decisions. The question to be asked is,

“Are our decisions helping us or hurting us?”

If they are helping people around us and us, then we retain our decisions.

If they are hurting people around us and us, then we need to change our thinking so that our decision-making becomes beneficial to us.

From wants to choices

Wants, wishes, likes, and desires bring in possibilities

Possibilities give rise to preferences

Preferences lead to comparisons

Comparisons force us towards choices

Choices are the basis of decisions

Duality of feelings

Decision-making is necessary because not all alternatives can be chosen

By choosing one, we may have to leave the other/s

Every decision creates two contradictory feelings

Satisfaction with the choice we have made

Dissatisfaction with the alternatives we have forsaken

A Cautionary Note
Time and again, individual decision-making is always taken over by the majority.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, the failure of education to inculcate independent thinking skills in children, the influence of mass media, propaganda, prestige suggestion, marketing, indoctrination, social media, etc., has resulted in structured and streamlined thinking and decision-making process.
We are no longer capable of making independent decisions, as they result in immediate social isolation.
Our only recourse now is to use the following appropriate thinking process before arriving at the decisions.
Let us go through some of the mantras on Decision-making.

25 MANTRAS ON DECISION MAKING

1

Alternatives are unlimited, but choices are limited

Consequently, decision-making becomes complicated

2

When no alternatives are available

Making a decision becomes rare

3

Not converting a decision into action

Is probably the weakest decision

4

There is no such thing as wrong decisions

It is only that the decisions we take may go wrong

5

We are happy to choose one thing over others

We are unhappy for not choosing all the others

6

There are no bad decisions during the decision-making process

Bad decisions are interpreted based on the results obtained after the decisions are made

7

You cannot protect yourself from bad decisions

You can only devise remedies to reduce their impact

8

Making a decision is comparatively easier than

Adhering to the decision to continue with it

9

Decisions are necessitated by possibilities

Decision-making becomes difficult when the probability increases

10

People prefer to justify weak decisions

Rather than changing their decisions

11

Decisions should be based on available alternatives

Rather than possible or assumed alternatives

12

Others’ decisions look better, bigger, and brighter to us

Because we rarely trust our own decisions

13

It is easier to make decisions under controlled conditions

Rather than in dynamic situations that have unbounded alternatives

14

Suggestions, guidance, and advice should be taken as alternatives

And never as capsules that have readymade decisions

15

Whenever we say “I want” or “I like”, we are informing about our decisions

Similarly, we make our decisions known to others whenever we say “I don’t want” and “I don’t like”

16

The greater the number of alternatives

The more difficult it is to make choices

17

It is far easier to make decisions for others

It becomes difficult to enforce our own decisions

18

When others make decisions for you

They are snatching away the only right you have from you

19

When whims and fancies influence your decisions

You are selling out your thinking and reasoning

20

The most expensive decision in life

Is to say “no” when you want to withdraw from something

21

Deciding not to do something

And not deciding is not the same thing

22

Always make decisions on your own

Never borrow them from someone!

23

We should not bother about whether our decisions are right or wrong

We should always be concerned about whether our thinking is right or wrong

24

The more you try to choose from the available alternatives

The more you will find that there is an increase in the new alternatives

25

The majority of our choices are not necessarily our choices

We are coerced or cajoled to make such choices and made to think that they are our choices

20 Pointers to Decision Making

Learn to make snap decisions
Don’t wait for all facts, information, suggestions, advice, etc.
Decide based on the alternatives available to you
Do not postpone decisions unnecessarily
Your decisions should not be influenced by “What will others think?”
Always prioritize the alternatives before you make a decision
Do not try to please everyone with your decisions
Weigh the risks before making a decision
Try to counter the negative consequences of your decision
Do not blame others for your decision
Do not ask others to make decisions for you
Learn to avoid or withdraw from doubtful and dangerous situations
Always have a rough estimation of the resources you have before you make a decision
Do not compromise your value system by yielding to others’ decisions
Present only the facts when you are asking for someone’s suggestion
Convert your decisions into actions as immediately as possible
Learn to tolerate it as frustration is an inevitable part of decision making
Do not keep changing your decisions too often; no one will take you seriously!
Conflicts are a form of stress; the only way to reduce the stress is to make the decision
Empower children and others by allowing them to make their own decisions