The sweetness of making good decisions

Life has different flavors and fragrances and in terms of decisions, sometimes they leave us with a sweet taste, other times they are a very bitter experience.

How to make the best of the decision-making process? First, let’s understand how it works…

First of all, you need a situation about which you are going to take a decision: It can be a marriage, a new job or just your hair-cut. In any case, you start your process by having different options.

The decision-making process has three main aspects that impact your choices:

1. Past experiences. They are usually definitive about decisions; that is, you will always try to repeat or avoid whatever you have experienced. That can be good or bad, according to the next aspect.
2. Logic. It has an importance in terms of filtering past experiences or understanding them and adapting them to the new context. The more logical someone is the better will be decisions related to fixed or predictable situations and circumstances. Of course, the next aspect will give the final say…
3. Soft side. We all rely on a soft side we all have, which can be a personality trace or the influence of culture, moment and period of time. Intuition or whatever you call this soft side will take whatever logic said and will try to validate or deny it, according to feelings and emotions.

To prevent undesirable consequences, you could add two other aspects or layers to the decision-making process: creativity and spirituality. By using a few techniques, like a brainstorming or a variation, you may challenge your assumptions and find out about other possibilities.

If you go into your own self using meditation or yoga, you may see things really different. That practice is particularly good in decisions which impact will last longer, like the change of a job or something related to your health.

A last thing to remember: after taking a decision, there is no way back. After all, even though you can go back somehow, it is another decision…