Making Better Decisions

For the next couple of weeks I want to share some thoughts from a book that has been a great help to me, Yes or No by Spencer Johnson.  This is a book that teaches us a method for making consistently better decisions.  Where we are in life is largely the result of decisions we have made, or not  made.  Johnson has discovered a pretty foolproof system for knowing how to "say 'Yes' to what works well for each of us and 'No' to what doesn't."

Our poor decisions cause problems in all areas of our lives – with our families, our finances, and our work.  The act of putting off a decision because we are afraid of making a mistake is a decision in and of itself.  We don't need to make perfect decisions; we just need to make better decisions.  A better decision is one where we feel better about how we made the decision and we get better results.

Most people have heard the axiom that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  When we continue to do the things that are not working, this is what we are doing.  We need to stop that behavior, based on the poor decision, which has become familiar and comfortable and create a void so that we can fill it with something better.  If we don't know what to do, the first step is to stop what we are doing right now.  As long as we are busy acting in the old way, the better way will not present itself.

So step one is to stop doing what we are currently doing and ask ourselves some questions.  We need to make our initial decision in our normal way and then ask a cool head question and a warm heart question.  Most of use one or the other, but better decisions are made when we take advantage of all the faculties we have.  For example, use your logical mind to figure what makes sense and then ask your heart how you feel about that; check in with some other folks in your Mastermind group, make the decision and act on it.

By using this system every time for every decision we will make better decisions overall.  It doesn't mean that we will never make a mistake, but it does mean that we will make more good decisions.  And as we get more experience using this system, we get better and better decisions. 

Stay tuned for the next installment, The Real Need.