Improving Your Decision-Making Skills to Achieve Greater Success

In my previous post I talked about the importance of developing your decision-making skills and how Oprah goes about making big decisions. Essentially, she has what can be described as a mastermind group with whom she consults, she listens to what everyone has to say and she tunes into how she feels about what they everyone has to say and then she makes a decision.

Having a mastermind or a group of trusted advisors is an excellent idea. You want to have individuals that are experts on the key elements of your project as well as someone who may not be an expert but is savvy enough to be able to evaluate a clear proposition. Napoleon Hill talks about the value of having a mastermind in his book "Think and Grow Rich".

Now, there will be occasions when you will not be able to physically access your mastermind group. However, you can still tap into their collective wisdom. Again, this is a technique that Hill talks about in his book and it's also discussed in the chapter "The Master Mind Principle" in the book by Dr Win Wagner and Richard Poe called "The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method for Increasing Intelligence".

It simply involves using your imagination and what you know of the characters of the individuals in your mastermind. You can then ask each member of your mastermind what they would do if placed in your situation or ask what advice they would give. The better you know these individuals the better the quality of the responses that you'll be able to invoke using this method.

Another key factor in Oprah's decision-making process is her feelings.

We are emotionally beings, although we often try to inhibit our emotions. In fact, there was an interesting movie called Equilibrium starring Christian Bale and Taye Diggs which was based on the premise of a world where the expression of your emotions was strictly forbidden - a bizarre world indeed. But humans are naturally designed to be emotive (and with good reason) the citizens of Equilibrium had to take a drug on a daily basis to inhibit their emotions but of course some people rebelled against this. However, I digress.

The point is you can detect things via your emotions that you may not even be able to articulate. And your feelings are very important when it comes to making a big decision. For instance, your feelings about a particular situation will tell you whether or not you are in integrity. And so if you make a decision but feel bad about it, then generally you can expect that things will not work out well.

However another element in becoming a great decision-maker is being able to make decisions in a timely manner. When it comes to making business decisions some people spend far too long trying to decide whether or not to give something a go. And they end up in a state of limbo where they don't take action on that particular business decision and consequently don't take action on other business decisions as well.

The individuals who achieve the greatest success in business are generally the ones who've also had the greatest number of failures. The trouble is that you often get too attached to the outcome of a project. If the project is a success you feel like a success and if the project fails you feel like a failure. If you're willing to accept that the outcome of a project does not define you then you'll find it easier to make business decisions. For as Internet Marketer Willie Crawford said in a recent teleseminar where he was discussing his "Master Blueprint to Internet Marketing":

"I'm willing to take a calculated risk on a business idea and so I do as much research as I can, I do my due diligence but I don't but I don't let it paralyse me from making a decision. I realise that some of the decisions I make aren't going to work out."

However, as time moves on and you gain more experience, you'll find that you'll become better at selecting and developing winning business ideas. For your decision-making skills, like any other skill, improves with practice and the more you improve your decision-making skills the easier you'll find it will be to achieve greater success.