How to Make a Decision

One of my readers recently asked me for some help on “how to make a decision.” I thought this would make a good idea for a post.

The topic can quickly get complicated, so I will aim to keep this simple and practical.

When you have to make a decision, I recommend asking yourself a variety of questions. Here they are:

Does the situation demand immediate action?

I ask this question first because if the situation demands immediate action, there is no time to figure out the best possible option. You have to use any available resources and do the best that you can given the circumstance.

The main criteria for deciding if you need to take immediate action is to ask if, by doing nothing, you may cause great and irreparable harm. Usually, when this is the case, you must take action. Strangely enough, if you have the presence of mind, you may also ask yourself: By doing something, might I cause great and irreparable harm? Perhaps sometimes it is best to do nothing if you will cause more harm by doing something.

Let’s say you are in the woods alone, and you suddenly notice a bear. It is not too far up ahead from you, perhaps just 20 feet away. Many things may immediately come to mind – you could run, hide, or even stay frozen in place and wait to see what happens, but of course, your instinct is probably to do something. If the bear has not shown any sign of aggression, you may even consider slowly walking away.

Regardless of what you choose to do, you may not have much time to evaluate all your options. You may need to act on instinct. This is clearly an important choice, whatever you choose to do, but you cannot easily perform research at the moment. Your mind and body are all you have to help you. You can only hope that the bear is not hungry and not aggressive.

Another type of example will be if you or someone near you suffers a medical emergency. If someone is choking, you may need to attempt the Heimlich maneuver even if you do not feel confident in your abilities. (Even if you call 911, the operator will probably try to talk you through how to perform the Heimlich while you wait for medical assistance.) To wait for assistance and do nothing else may lead to death.

Am I the right person to make this decision?

It’s easy to assume that you need to make this decision, but perhaps you're mistaken. You should question whether you are the person with the right expertise to make such a decision before proceeding.

For example, today, I took my car to my mechanic because I heard a noise when using my brakes. He ended up recommending that I get my brakes replaced because they are worn down. Keep in mind that I don’t have much expertise in cars other than what I’ve learned by getting them serviced through the years.

The decision I have to make is whether to spend the money on this particular service. However, as far as the need for this service goes, I am willing to defer judgment to the mechanic since he is the one with the expertise to know what needs to be fixed.

If I ever have reason to believe that my mechanic is dishonest or that he lacks expertise or good judgment, then I may decide to find another mechanic.

Nonetheless, this is an area of my life where I rely on experts to help make the final decision. In such cases, I still recommend asking many questions. I always wish to understand what they want to fix, how long the parts will last, and so forth. And if they mention parts of the car I am not familiar with, I will ask how it works. I mention this for you to understand that while I defer judgment to the experts, I still aim to make sure I follow what they are doing as much as is possible. Experts can make mistakes, so if something doesn’t make sense, you should be alert and let them know.

In the end, I decided to follow the judgment of my mechanic and get the brakes replaced. My decision was to go along with his decision.

You may find yourself in a situation where you are entrusted to make a final decision. If so, do not let the power go to your head. Ask yourself if you are truly the right person to make that final decision. If not, look for someone with the right expertise to help you make the best choice. The right person may be above your level or even below it, or in another field altogether.

Is this important?

Deciding whether something is important can be trickier than it seems. Sometimes a seemingly trivial action can suddenly seem incredibly important. Or something that seems immensely important may actually be trivial if viewed differently. Nonetheless, this is a key question that you must ask yourself.

One time I was shopping for dental floss, and there happened to be about five different choices. I struggled to figure out which one was the right option. Then I realized that this was probably not such an important decision at the end of the day. I should make a decision and move on with my day. For most of my purchases that involve health in some way, I usually want something that is good quality, so I settled on one of the floss options that cost above average.

Regardless of which option I settled on, it probably wasn’t going to impact my life much.

The less important something is, the less time you should spend on it. This is because you probably have more important decisions to make in your life. And of course, the more important something is, the more time you should be willing to spend on it, to make sure you choose the best option.

Do I have all the information I need?

Something else to ask is if you have all of the information that you need to make the right choice. Are you confident that you know enough to make the right choice? Have you gathered information from different reliable sources? Do you have expertise in the area?

Be aware that you will probably never have all of the possible information. There will usually be something that you do not know about a topic. But of course, there is limited time, and you have to learn to realize when you have learned enough. When you know enough, you should stop gathering information.

If you do not have the information that you need, ask if you can get it in a reasonable amount of time. Do you know the right people or sources where you can get the right information?

If you do not have the information and cannot get it efficiently, you should find someone who can help you make this decision. Clearly, you should seek out an expert or someone with more experience.

What are my deal-breakers?

Sometimes I see people considering clearly bad options, and I can’t help but feel that they are just wasting time. Of course, we all have different ideas for what is bad.

As a brief example, if you are selecting your apples at the grocery store, you probably know to avoid any that are broken and exposed or that have dark brown spots, perhaps indicating that they have been dropped or that they are starting to rot. You do not need to take time to consider these. The options that are clearly bad should not take your time – you can safely ignore them.

To use a more impactful example, if you are house shopping, you may decide that you do not want to live in an area with a high crime rate. Or you do not want to live right next to a busy street, perhaps. We all have to decide for ourselves what the deal-breakers are – the options that are so bad we will not even consider them.

Although this seems obvious, it is easy to waste time evaluating the deal-breakers. Instead, identify them and ignore them or purposely remove them from the options that you will consider.

What are the consequences of making a mistake?

When making your decisions, consider what will happen if you make a wrong choice. Can it cause irreparable harm? Can it cause you to get stuck in a situation that you do not want to be in for many, many years? Can it cost you your job or endanger your life? Might it cost you your life savings? A valued friendship?

Or perhaps the consequences would not be so dire. Perhaps, in some cases, the worst consequence you face is losing $10. Or you may risk losing 10 minutes, having to perform an action again if you make a mistake. In such cases, you may decide that the money or the time does not concern you too much, and if you make a mistake, that is fine.

Many years ago, my parents told me they were looking into a micro-surgery option to help my Dad fix some back problems he was having. To help them, I decided to do a bit of research into a company that had sent them promotional materials regarding this service. In reading reviews and researching the company, I quickly realized that many people were claiming the micro-surgery (from this particular company) had failed to fix people’s back problems – and in many cases, people even complained that their problems had gotten worse. Unfortunately, this was a broad pattern – it did not seem to be just a few isolated cases. In the end, I recommended that my parents avoid this option.

Generally, when it comes to health, if you risk terrible consequences through making mistakes, it is worth it to take the time and to do the research to make sure you arrive at the best decision that you can make.

What are My Selection Criteria?

Hopefully, by using the above questions, you will make good decisions much more easily. But what can we do for critical and complex decision-making?

If your decision requires many different criteria that you find important, weigh those criteria. I will use buying a house as an example again. This is perhaps one of the most significant decisions that many of us will make.

Below is an example of how I would weigh the criteria if I were personally going to buy a home. Of course, if you are buying a home or making another important life choice, you should weigh your criteria in the order of importance for yourself.

1) Cost – If you are going to buy a home, you need to know the price range you will consider. Anything outside of this range will be dropped from consideration. For most things in life, the cost isn’t my first consideration, but trying to buy a house that is too expensive could lead to bankruptcy or other major financial troubles that will impact your whole life.

As a part of considering the cost of a house, I would consider the list price, cost of any transactions and fees, the average expected fees to maintain the house, and any repairs that may be needed.

2) Do I really like it? – If I am going to spend a lot of money on a home and be living there for years, I would not want to buy it unless I truly like the home. This may include the layout of the rooms, their size, the home's condition, the feeling I get from it, the style, the condition of the yard, etc.

3) Safety – I would want the home to be in a safe area with a relatively low crime rate. This might include considering whether the home is near the main street or in a residential neighborhood with less traffic.

4) Proximity to my wife’s job – I work from home, but my wife still needs to get to work, so it would help to live close to my wife’s workplace. Within a 20 minute drive would be preferable.

5) Proximity to a good grocery store, shopping center, bookstore, restaurants, a hospital, etc. - I would rather not have to drive too far to pick up the groceries or get to important places that I frequently need to go to.

6) Other considerations - These are not the most important considerations, but I would still keep them in mind. Here, I might consider distance to family members or friends, frequency of natural disasters, and other factors.

When you have decided upon your selection criteria, make sure to keep them in order of highest priority in your mind. Perhaps your budget is the most important thing, and you are unwilling to spend more than a certain amount. To stay within your budget, you may need to sacrifice something - perhaps you will have to drive a bit further to get to work, for example.

On major decisions, I think it helps to imagine them in your mind. Can you live with driving 45 minutes to work every day? Or is it important to you that it be within a 20-minute drive? When you think it through more deeply, you may realize that you wouldn’t mind the drive, or rather, you may realize that you would be miserable driving so much. Using your imagination will help you to make sure that your priorities are in the right order.

Concluding Thoughts

These are some of the key considerations I go through when I have to make a decision. I hope that this helps you. When you have a big or important decision to make, it’s best to give yourself as much time as you can. I would not want to feel pressured into making a big life decision in just a few days. I would want more time to think it through.

As a consideration that goes beyond the scope of this post, you may question whether you can create new options. This involves creative ability and knowing how to unlock infinite possibilities. I have often found myself in situations where there appeared to be just a few limited options, and I ended up creating new pathways and possibilities for myself rather than accepting the obvious options.

We all know some people who struggle to make decisions on their own. They may rely too heavily on input from friends, family, or colleagues. It can be helpful to get advice from others, but keep in mind that in the end, you will be the one who has to deal with the outcomes, whether good or bad. Be cautious with taking actions just because it would please the people around you.

Of course, there are many types of people. Some people may be content with making big decisions on a hunch or using their intuition. I prefer to explore my options and what the consequences may be analytically. I prefer to take my time for major decisions, but for decisions that do not matter much, I try to limit the time I spend on them. It’s easy to get sucked into wasting time on the things that do not matter, so you should set a time limit on such simple choices. If I feel that the available options are not the best, I’m also more than happy to create new options.