How to Make a Decision - Easily

Do you find it difficult to make a decision - any decision ?

How do you make a choice when you’re stuck at a fork in the road?
www.followyourstar.co.nz

How can you decide when two or more possibilities seem equally good?

I’ve been learning (but haven’t mastered) the principles of Effortless Decision-Making. It’s a way of making decisions where you can flow through the constant stream of decisions we must make every day of our lives, without getting stuck, without being paralyzed by fear. We choose, and flow, and we let go of worry.

What follows is a very brief guide to making effortless decisions.

Let go of perfection. We’ll never make perfect decisions, and wanting to make the perfect choice keeps us paralyzed.

Get more information. Don’t let this hold you up, but if you’re stuck it’s often because you don’t have the necessary info. What info do you need? Can you easily get it? Get it now if you can, but don’t be held up by the lack of info. www.followyourstar.co.nz

Try and err. If you don’t have enough info — and that’s usually the case — just choose. It doesn’t really matter what you choose, just make a choice and let go of the idea of making the right choice. Now live with that choice for a bit, and see what happens. This is called trial and error, and it’s often the best way to get information. We try something, and see how it works out — and then we have more information to make better decisions in the future. When you look at it this way, decisions are just a series of trial and error experiments, and it doesn’t matter what the outcomes are, because any outcome is good information.

Try intuition. If you’re stuck and don’t have enough info, let go of worry and just make a choice. How do you make a choice? You could flip a coin, but you could also just go with your gut reaction. What does your intuition say? Start listening to it — often it’s an unconscious decision based on lots of factors that we can’t consciously process, so a part of our unconscious brain processes it and comes up with a split-second decision. Intuition can be wrong, but that’s still OK: we’re going to learn from the results no matter what. So just learn to hear your intuition, and go with it.

Let go of worry. If you learn the above principles, it’s easy to see that there’s nothing to worry about. You don’t need to be perfect, and a decision is very rarely the end of the world (at least, no decision has led to the end of the world yet). Sure, history is littered with the corpses of those who made bad decisions, but there are a million times more decisions that were made without any really bad consequences. You won’t die, you’ll just learn. So don’t worry — just choose.

Practice, and flow. You’ll get better at this with practice, as you learn to let go of perfection and worry and see decisions as experiments. You’ll learn to do it better, faster, with more intuition. Soon you’ll flow through your daily decisions with ease. Do it consciously at first, keeping in mind all of the above principles, but it gets easier as you go.

Making decisions is something we do all day long, and it doesn’t have to be difficult. We build certain decisions up in our minds because we think they’re incredibly important, but in truth they’re rarely that big a deal. This isn’t the Cuban Missile Crisis — we’re not deciding the fate of a nation. See choice as an opportunity to learn, and you’ll be happy for every single effortless decision that comes your way.

Thanks to Leo Babauta at http://zenhabits.net/ A really good Blog :)

What is YOUR North Star ?

As you journey toward your inner compass you will be faced with a multitude of life choices along the way - choices that will either draw you nearer to finding your True North or pull you further away from this amazing inner light.

When you acknowledge and honour your True North you are saying that you believe that within you lie the answers that will give you greater happiness and higher potential, ignite your passions and allow you to live your dreams - in short, the answers to living the life you were born to live, a life in which you 'Compromise Up' and stop selling yourself short.

There may be times when you feel utterly alone - lost and even without hope. But when you discover your True North you will soon locate and then unleash a powerful life tool to call upon when you need it most - a dependable and accurate compass that you can count on to always bring you back to that fixed point of who you really are; your authentic self, among the ever evolving constellations of your life. If you are to discover your True North, you must 'Compromise Up' and willingly accept into your life the best that life has to offer.

By 'Compromising Up' I mean that you need to raise your standards to a higher level so that you can create the healthiest emotional and physical environment in which you can thrive, be your best self and live your best life. You need to know that standing up for yourself and wanting better, not settling for less, but expecting the magnificent rather than the mediocre, the greater rather than the good - is not selfish by any means. Rather, expecting the best for yourself is an extension of your self-worth and the level of esteem in which you hold yourself.

It also is a reflection of the standards by which you live your life and the things in life that you feel you are worthy of receiving. 'Compromising Up' is simply treating yourself with greater respect and living by higher standards to show the world that you respect yourself and that you deserve more, not less, in your life. It also speaks to the value that you place on your time and energy.

Two of the most valuable resources we possess as human beings are our time and our energy. How you honour these two precious resources is a direct reflection on the kind of people and circumstances that you allow into your life or the choices you make.

When you 'Compromise Up' you gain the respect and admiration of others and you attract the best that life can offer because you think enough of yourself not to just accept the mediocre that life dishes out.

To find out if you are settling for less, think about what you hear yourself saying or doing in didfferent situations in life, for example: "I don't like to make a scene", "I stayed in a job I hated because I didn't have enough faith in myself to go look for something where I was using my talents", "I prefer not to rock the boat", "I never send food back in a restaurant, no matter how badly it is served up" Why do we say these things ? Maybe it's becuase we are taught to put the needs of others ahead of our own. Why do we allow certain people to treat us badly or with no respect? Whenever we do, and accept what is, instead of what could be, we are making choices that further distance us from our True North and the life we deserve.

So, clearly, the lesson here is to choose Abundance over Self Deprivation. When you speak up for yourself, demonstrate your confidence, ask for what you deserve, act with conviction, expect more rather than less and take a stand for something, you will automatically be choosing a life of greater abundance. You will be compromisng up and moving on a path that gravitates closer to your internal True North.

Extracted from "Discover True North" by Anne Bruce
Buy a copy here: http://www.thenile.co.nz/books/Anne-Burce/Discover-True-North-A-Program-to-Ignite-Your-Passion-and/9780071403009/

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Quote for the Day

Change is inevitable but personal growth is a choice. Bob Proctor

How do you respond to change in your environment or situation? If you resist it and keep doing or responding in the same way as you always have, then what will happen? Will things change if you don't embrace the small changes? How much 'growing' have you done in the last year ? What are your plans for this year and do you have any ideas as to how they are going to happen - even how they will look when you have achieved them ?

A few thoughts for the week. I saw that quote tonight and thought it was worth passing on so hope someone found it to be valuable too.