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Three Things To Consider When Making a Decision

Making business decisions in Kenya

You are the choices you make, so make the right one.

“Decisions. We can think about things, turn them over in our minds a million times, play out possible scenarios, but really when it comes down to it, you have to go with your heart and move forward. Maybe things will go well.

May be they will turn out poorly. Every decision brings with it some good, some bad, some lessons and some luck. The only thing that’s for sure is that indecision steals many years from many people who wind up wishing they’d just had the courage to leap,” says Doe Zantamata.

Making choices is one of the most dreaded things in life, especially where one should be and where one wants to be. But life is all about making a decision, making a choice of one option over the other.

Which university to go to, whether business or job – which job to take up or which business to do, which movie to watch or as simple as where to go for lunch? Whether you want to make a simple decision or a complicated one, sometimes it is very hard to make a choice, stick it to and not regret about the options left out.

And as I was making choice of the topic of this article, I read something very interesting. “What is the secret of Success – Right decisions; How do you make right decisions – Experience; How do you get experience – Wrong decision” How true is it.
While life is all about making choices, you could spend up a lifetime not knowing what to choose, getting jittery about the outcomes and growing insecure about lost opportunities.

But remember, life is simple and clear when you make choices, stick to them and not regret about choices not made. Always do your best to make the right ones and always do your best to learn from the wrong ones.

Three things to consider when making choices and to decide if you have made the right decision:

1.Why is it important to make choices

The choices you make now, the people you surround yourself with, they all have the potential to impact your life, even who you are, forever.

Do what you think is right. Don’t let people make the decisions of right or wrong for you. Make the choice, the decision based on your own analysis and understanding, you are much more in control of the actions and the results.
Nobody in your life can make your life better, other than you. If you want your life in a certain way, you must make a choice, to take a chance or your life will never change.

2.How to know if your decision is right or not

Most choices in life do not come with a guarantee or warranty for exchange. You may not be able to predict whether the choices would turn in your favour or against you and yet every day you are required to make many choices – from the minute you wake up to the minute you sleep.

While some choices do not make a huge impact in your life, the simple one question we need to be asking ourselves – “How can we ever know if our decisions are right or not?” Well the answer to this simple sounding question is actually not so simple.
“You will know you made the right decision when you pick the hardest and the most painful choice but your heart is at peace.”

3.What do you do when your decision is not the right one

We have all been there, done that and seen it before – Choices tanking us down. Our choices come as a package along with the consequences and they are not always in our favour. The most important thing to realize in such situations is that when things go wrong, they teach us what is right. Failure teaches you how not to fail again. That’s why it is said that, “You can’t make the same mistake twice because when the second time you make it, it’s not a mistake, it is a choice. So when you fail, rather than fretting, learn how to bounce back and get back into action.

Time has a really wonderful way of showing us what matters, so don’t really let the fear of failure take over you, after all, sometimes not getting what you want is the most amazing and wonderful stroke of luck. So sometimes it is better to avoid over-thinking and focus on what life has to offer.

As Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post said, “We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we will screw up royally sometimes. Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, but is a part of it.”
So every time you fear making a choice, say to yourself, “I choose to live by choice, not by chance; to make changes; not excuses; to be motivated, not manipulated; to be useful, not used; to excel, not to compete. I choose self-esteem, not self-pity. I choose to listen to my inner voice, not the random opinion of others.”

Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, you need to make a different choice.

Author Bio

Sriram SmallMr. Bharatam is the founder and chief mentor at Kuza Biashara Limited, a capacity building organisation coaching youth and SME owners across Africa. He can be reacTwitter: @Sbharatam or Email: sri@kuzabiashara.co.ke.

NB: This article first appeared on the Enterprise Section of the Business Daily Newspaper on 27/9/2016.



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