I hold my hand up: I sometimes struggle taking even the simplest and easiest decisions. I can struggle to make quick and decisive decisions, because if I'm honest they’re unlikely to influence an important life or death situation so I can dither and procrastinate. Over the last few years I have seen the detrimental effect of my procrastination impact my career, job choices, relationships and even my own self-respect. I know I have needed to be better in my decision making process and cultivate a strong and steely warrior-like mindset. I'm in the midst of developing process.
I start by thinking what might cause me to dither and procrastinate in the first place: whether it’s to do with the fear of making the wrong decision – making the wrong investment decision and potentially losing money, or taking the wrong job offer and being stuck in a job I hate. I don’t make these types of decisions too often. However, I sometimes struggle with the smaller stuff like deciding to take tube or bus, what to wear or what to eat; “I don’t mind” is my usual response when Pete asks what I want for dinner. Does that sound familiar? In my defence I don’t want the responsibility for getting it wrong and then I can fearful of the consequences.
Then after a long hard talk with myself, I become determined to make more steely decisions. I know that I need to face my fears of getting it wrong and taking responsibility for what might happen. This means quickly running through the likely outcomes of each decision, the pros and the cons, which one is bad, and which one is worse. I need to stop worrying and sweating the small stuff. So what if I get some decisions wrong? I need to tell myself that I can deal with the consequence of my bad decisions when they happen and learn from them. I need to let the fear work as a motivator and just make up my mind. After all what’s the worst that could happen? Well sometimes I’ll get it wrong. It’s a sign I’m growing up!
