Simple Decision Making.
The biggest thing we as mothers spend our time overthinking about is whether we are making the right decisions. We spend our nights after our family are fast asleep going through worst case scenarios in our heads. When then find ourselves distracted throughout the day by more decisions we can’t figure out is the right ones. This can cause us anxiety, stress, arguments with our loved ones and frustrations towards our children when they are craving for our presence when our energy is far from the present moment – simply because we have these decisions weighing us down. We can get into a state of analysis paralysis – which causes us to overthink so much that we become completely unproductive – we simply do nothing which only tends to compound the situation further.
So how do we make decisions faster?
We become more purposeful and resourceful – at the right time. This may be setting aside a certain time of day or night for these decisions so we can give them the attention they deserve.
The biggest thing here is: MAKE YOUR DECISION THE RIGHT ONE.
It’s easy for us to believe that the best decision must be made by thinking deeper, longer and harder. – Often though the options can be equally valid, and sometimes it’s hard to decide what the best choice is.
So typically we fret, overthink, don’t sleep and over analyse until we are forced to make a call – then once it is made we often continue along this path.
There is a simpler way.
Ed Batista of the Stanford Business School put it this way in his article for Harvard Business Review:
“Before we make any decision — particularly one that will be difficult to undo — we’re understandably anxious and focused on identifying the “best” option because of the risk of being “wrong.” But a by-product of that mindset is that we overemphasize the moment of choice and lose sight of everything that follows. Merely selecting the “best” option doesn’t guarantee that things will turn out well in the long run, just as making a sub-optimal choice doesn’t doom us to failure or unhappiness. It’s what happens next (and in the days, months, and years that follow) that ultimately determines whether a given decision was ‘right.’”
In other words, it’s our commitment and confidence in the decision that will ultimately distinguish whether it was the right decision or not. It is also the letting go of needing to know, of creating the possible scenarios in our heads and letting things be that funnily enough encourages a positive outcome.
The best question when we are trying to make a decision is to ask ourselves what option will inspire and motivate us more to ensure it is the right decision.
