I have a question for you my dear friends, Do you agree, making a decision is a tough thing to do? Yes? Definitely. Napoleon Bonaparte once said : Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”
It was long long time ago, but why still related ’til now? as if we live in the same century. Even Bonaparte, who lived in the 18th century when things were not as complex as they are now, also had difficulties in making decisions. More over, we are now lives in the complex world, when everything is complicated, intricate and full of interconnected factors, making it difficult to understand or navigate. As we lives in the modern life, we are pushed to involves in many challenges, uncertainties and variables, such as technology, economy, social issues that make decision makings more difficult. Because it hard to decide, people tend to procrastinate, and make it protracted. And in the end, people tend to reluctant to make a decision, as if we are afraid? Afraid of making the wrong decisions and might be regret it later, maybe because there’s too many choices, it becomes overwhelming to pick the best ones. Also, because of we don’t know what will happen next, we think it’s risky to making decisions and no to mention we got influenced and pressured from the others, who thinks they know better. The pressure is real! And all these factors keep shadowing us from making the decisions.
So, the big questions is, how we can make decision makings easier? Here’s the idea, but I want to borrow the famous word from writer Maya Angelou to deliver it to you : Keep it Simple, Sweetie. I know you guys want to protest : Wait, what does it means by simple? You said before making decisions is tough because we are lives in complex world, so what simple about it? Here we go, Yes true we lives in a complex world, that is why to make it easy for us to making the decisions, we have to keep it simple.
Turning complexity into simplicity requires clarity. Clarity in decision making means having a clear understanding of our choices, the possible outcomes, and what truly matters before making a decision. How to gain clarity? First thing to do we have to sit down, relax, absorb and understanding all the facts before we make a decisions. And the first step is we have to define our goals. For example the big company that we dream for offer us a very nice position, with very nice income, but in the same time more work hours, we must available all the time, now we trying to get clarity here, we must ask ourselves, what is our goals, what do we really want? what really matters to us? Is it nice position and nice salary? Or more time with family aka work-life balance? If we already know the answers, it’s easy for us to make a decision. Now here’s a different case, we have to choose in between two choices, option A and option B, in general, that two options is equal, all is good, ofcourse we feel confuse. By then, we have to do this to gain clarity, gathering key informations, collecting relevant facts that is essentials for us, might be like work-life balance, company culture, career growth, etc. before making the decision so we can make the best choice. But please remember this, IGNORE irrelevant details that complicate things! It will lead us to decision fatigue. We have to keep it simple. Only stick to the essential details. Just like writing, to keep it simple, we have to remove extra words to make our message clear and direct, so the reader understand it easily. And last if necessary, consider consequences. Think of short term and long term effects of our decisions. How will this decision affect our life in 6 months, 1 year, or 5 years? How will this decision affect our family, friends, or colleagues? As for me, if I still think about it, I will always go back to first step, define my goals. Focusing on what truly matters and essentials for me.
If we already gaining clarity, we can make a decision easily, fast, not protracted and firm. Our ability to decide fast and firm is the sign of clarity, and therefore it is also a sign of strength. Something is little bit rare nowadays. Hope we can always be someone to easily making the decisions in this complex world. Nothing but the best for all of us, cheers!
Love,
Kirana
