Success Secret - Improve Your Decision-Making Skills

The level of success you achieve in life and or in business is in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of your decision-making.

Motivational Speaker Alex Mandossian summed up the whole issue of decision-making beautifully and succinctly when he said:

"Doing isn't difficult. Deciding to do is."

For you see nothing happens until a decision is made. You've probably heard that nothing happens until a sale is made but think about it. When you make a decision you've effectively sold yourself on an idea.

The problem is that people sometimes struggle to make even the simplest of decisions and because of this they remain stuck. They're almost in a state of paralysis.

One reason for this is that people not only have the freedom to choose their own way; often they also have a multitude of choices. And while, on the one hand, the latter can be a blessing, it can also be a curse as when confronted with too many options the mind becomes confused and its decision-making capacity is diminished.

Unfortunately, indecisiveness can derail your chances of achieving success. As Napoleon Hill discovered:

"Men who succeed reach decisions promptly, and change them, if at all, very slowly. Men who fail, reach decisions, if at all, very slowly, and change them frequently, and quickly."

Napoleon Hill also goes on to say that indecisiveness and procrastination are twin brothers. People procrastinate on making decisions because then they don't have to take action. However, they are shooting themselves in the foot because they cannot make progress towards their goals if they don't make a decision.

People often worry about making the wrong decision and yes, it is possible to make a mistake, but most mistakes can be corrected. Often the route to your goal is not direct and you have to keep adjusting the direction of your course until you reach your destination. And the more you improve your decision-making skills the fewer mistakes you'll make.

So just how do you go about improving your decision-making skills? Well, you start with the very next decision you have to make. T Harv Eker said that:

"The way you do anything is the way you do everything."

In other words, if you have poor decision-making skills it's not going to only show up when you have to make a big decision. It's going to show up in every facet of your life. You probably hesitate in deciding what shoes to wear, which restaurant to have lunch at or whether to drive or use public transport to get to your meeting.

So get into the habit of making the simple decisions swiftly. Also, notice and congratulate yourself when you do this. Practice this relentlessly for at least 30 days. You will then find that it becomes easier to make more challenging decisions because you will have installed a new habit.

In addition, notice the positive consequences of each of your decisions because you can be certain that just as every decision you fail to make has a cost every decision you do make has a benefit. In other words, regularly perform cost-benefit analysis of the key decisions that you make. You see, at the moment you may be indecisive but you may not be fully taking into account what your decisiveness is truly costing you.

For instance, how much did you lose when you hesitated on making that deal? How much did you potentially lose when you didn't apply for that job even though it was perfect for you?

However, it's also important to do the opposite as well and acknowledge what you gained by being decisive. Take note of both the tangible and the intangible benefits. When you do this you'll be quick to recognise the full benefits of being decisive and you'll find that your decisiveness as well as the level of success you achieve in life will come on by leaps and bounds.

Decision-making is an important leadership skill. People do not have confidence in someone who is indecisive. However, the most important person to successfully lead in this life is you for as as Robert F. Bennett said:

"Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself."