Make Big Decisions Confidently with Just 3 Simple Questions

Ep: 158

Do you struggle when it comes to confidently making important decisions about your life and career?

Engaging in a lengthy process of decision-making, unfortunately, is all too common. We often (mistakenly)believe that the more time we spend making a decision, the more likely we are to make a GOOD or RIGHT decision. The truth? When it comes to making decisions, only 5% of logic actually comes into play. But those who over analyze spend drastically more time seeking information trying to rationalize what they already know to be true deep down.

Not only is this process stressful and time-consuming, it can be downright exhausting. And the longer you take to make a decision, the more likely you are to make the wrong one.

But there IS a better way. 

Today, Blake explains why our brains cloud our decision-making with so much emotion, and how you can clear a path that allows logic to be your guide. She shares 3 important questions you can ask yourself to speed up your decision-making process with less stress and more clarity. You’ll learn how much time actually gets wasted when we waffle through an emotion-led process and a simple method for tapping into your inner wisdom so you can start making big choices in a lot less time.

What You’ll Learn:

  • 3 questions to ask yourself before you make a big decision (2:04)
  • Why waiting to make important decisions is the wrong approach (3:20)
  • How much time we spend letting fear be in the driver’s seat (4:52)
  • Knowing whether you’re making decisions based on fear or based on wisdom (5:34)

Favorite Quotes:

  1. By waiting and taking additional time, you’re not able to make a better decision. Instead, what you’re doing is allowing fear to drive your decision-making.
  2. If we end up spending our time trying to be analytical or logical about the decisions that in our gut we already know are right, we are wasting time and allowing fear to be in the driver’s seat.
  3. The longer you take to make a decision, the more likely you are to make the wrong one. Learn totrust yourself.

Rather than hoping the grass will be greener, identify what the RIGHT next step is. 

We can help you do just that.

Get clarity on where you are on your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optional paths to get there, and the right next step to take.

Start your complimentary, Personalized Career Fulfillment Plan by going to www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan

Want free resources to set your job search up for success? You can get them by going to:https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/mistakes

Transcript

Blake Schofield 0:03 My name is Blake Schofield, founder and CEO of Connections Illuminated, mom to three, and former corporate executive who got tired of sacrificing my life for a comfortable paycheck. My mission is to change women’s perspectives about what is possible, empowering them with the tools to create greater impact at home and at work without sacrificing their health time, family or income. This is The Bridge to Fulfillment.

Blake Schofield 0:31 I grew up in a family that really vetted through decisions very thoroughly. I’ll never forget as a kid watching my stepdad research televisions, and he would spend well over a month researching every type of television, all the attributes, and then he would narrow to the TV he wanted. Next, he would go look at all the retailers and pricing, he would understand when pricing was going to go up and down. And he would go through that entire process before he bought. That was my experience of decision-making. As a kid, I grew up being somebody who just really valued and spent a lot of time triangulating the right answer, vetting and making sure that when I made a decision, I knew for sure it was the right one. And here’s what I can tell you, I’ve learned that I actually wasted a tremendous amount of my life on things that didn’t matter, a gathering far more data than I needed. Because I thought that was what was necessary to make the right decision for myself. What I’ve learned in these last several years has completely changed the way I made decisions. Today I make decisions in about 5 to 10% of the tim, it used to take me. As a result of those decisions, I’ve gotten much further and greater trajectory, as well as more peace of mind and time back in my day. If you are somebody like me who is analytical, a problem solver. And you really want to make sure you think through decisions before you make them. And you find yourself often thinking I just need a bit more time or I need to think about this, then you are going to love this next tool that I’m going to teach you. Whenever you’re faced with a big decision, or something where you feel like you need more time. One of the best approaches I’ve learned is to ask myself three questions. Number one, what do I need to figure out? Number 2, am I missing a piece of information? And if so how can I get it? What you’ll often find when you do that is your brain actually goes blank, you actually realize, you know what, I actually don’t know what I need to figure out. And then when you ask yourself the second question, you realize many times that you’re actually not missing information. Now, of course, if you do this and you’re missing information, then you have the key, then the next goal is to figure out where can I learn this information? And how quickly can I get it so that you can make a decision. But what I’ll tell you is most of the time, what I see is that we really don’t know what we need to figure out if we’re not missing information. And if that is the circumstance or situation for you, I want you to know if there’s no information than you know, in that moment, that it’s actually your nerves and fear that are keeping you stuck, you’re actually not missing anything that you need to find. And by waiting, taking additional time, you’re not able to make a better decision. Instead, what you’re doing is allowing fear to drive your decision making. And when we do that, fear is a very tricky thing. It likes to create all sorts of what ifs and stories about what could happen, but likely never will. What it does is puts you in analysis paralysis. Often we don’t understand how to deal with fear. We don’t understand that fear many times is a liar. And that the longer you sit in fear, the worse it gets in the way through fears to be able to go back and actually identify what it is that you know to be true. So here’s a quick recap. If you’re faced with a situation where you have to make a decision and you thought to yourself, I need time to think more time, or I just need to figure it out. Ask yourself three questions. What do I need to figure out? Am I missing a piece of information? And if so, how do I find it?

Blake Schofield 4:24 If you recognize that you’re missing information, the faster you go find that information to get the answer the faster you’re able to move forward to take action in your life. If however, you’re not missing information, and you don’t really know what you need to figure out, you can be confident that what you’re dealing with is fear. The fastest way to move past that fear is to go back to what you know to be true. What was your gut telling you before you had to make a decision? How did you feel right 95% of decision making is emotional, and only 5% of our brain uses logic If we end up spending 20, 30 or 40% of our time trying to be analytical or logical about the decisions that in our gut we already do, we’re right. We are wasting time and allowing fear to be in the driver’s seat. The longer you take to make a decision, the more likely you are to make the wrong one. Learn to trust yourself. Recognize the feeling that you need more time is generally and usually just code for I’m fearful. Stop and challenge yourself when faced with fear or big decisions. A great question to ask is: Am I making decisions from a place of wisdom and opportunity, or a place of fear and frustration? Wisdom and opportunity comes from using the data and information you have to make the best choice today. That’s why we start by asking if we’re missing information. Where we make decisions from a place of fear, frustration, well, they will never be in your best interest. They will never be the ones that actually optimize to get you what you want. But I found consistently that decisions made for wisdom and opportunity have been the very doors that have opened up possibilities for my life that I would have never gotten otherwise. Thanks so much for joining me today. Until next time, have a great one.

Blake Schofield 6:26 Thanks for joining me today. Rather than hope the grass will be greener identify what the right next step is. We can help you do just that. Get clarity on where you are in your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optimal paths to get there, and the right next step to take. Start your complimentary personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan. Again, you can get your personalized career fulfillment plan at www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan. Thanks again for joining and have a great week ahead