Each and every decision we make contributes to our lives in one way or another. The life we
live in now is the result of a series of decisions we have taken. From, what to
pursue as a career, the partner with who you are going to spend half of your
life, the money you spend, everything is a decision.
Decision making is
powerful and most of us don't make use of this power in the right way. One bad
decision and BOOM your life is ruined. Imagine marrying someone you are not
into for the sake of society. Your life is ruined. Therefore, decisions hold a
very important part of our life that most of us fail to appreciate.
Also, most of us are
impulsive decision-makers, we just make the decision based on the situation.
But, what we forget is that we always have a choice. A choice to choose what we
want. Again, when it comes to decision making we are not even sure of what we
want.
To help you deal with the pressure of decision making and to make it more efficient, there is
a tool called - The decision-making wheel
1. What's going on?
First, state what
the problem/situation where you want to make a decision. Just state it very
clearly so that you yourself can get the idea of what the actual problem is.
For example, don’t just say that "Relationship issue". Write down
precisely what the issue is, say "Me and my spouse had an argument about
buying a new home. I insist on saving the money for emergency funds first. But
my spouse wants to buy a house with all the money we have plus take a loan from
the bank". Now you clearly know what the problem, so now let's move to
the next part.
2. What do we know?
What do you know
about the situation. I am going to explain to you the whole wheel process with the
above example. Now, I know that I want to save the money for the reason I
support it. Here, I also wanted to know why my spouse wants a house when we are
running out of emergency funds. Are they worried about not having an own house
due to society's pressure? Or they consider buying the house as a valid future
investment. I need to know what everyone concerned about in the situation is
thinking.
3. What are the root causes?
The root cause here
is that me and my spouse having a difference of opinion with the money we are
going to spend.
4. What could we do?
Here, we are
focusing on the choices we have in a situation. You will be surprised by how
many choices you will have once you really start to dig deep into the problem
and decision making. In this example, we have three choices
One - I should agree
with my partner and buy a house
Two - My spouse
should agree with me and save the money
Three - We can
mutually decide one more way of investment. We may save 20% of the money we have in emergency funds
and with the rest of the money, instead of buying a house, we might buy a small
complex with shops that pay us rent. So with this rent, we will have more
money coming in so that we can effectively save for our future house.
5. What is the best thing to do?
Now, you have to
decide what would be the best choice. There are possibilities laid before your
eyes. You can choose one and move ahead with the other steps. In the above
situation, the best thing to do is to go ahead with the third step.
6. How do we go about it?
To make this decision what are the tools that you need. In this case, you need money, a good broker who can help you with the complex and a mutual decision.
7. Have we solved the problem?
Question yourself
honestly, if you have solved the problem effectively with all the choices you
had.
8. Can we improve on what we
have done?
This is the final
step of the decision-making wheel. Here, you can once again validate the
decision you have taken. If you do not feel satisfied with the decision, run
your problem through the wheel again formulating different choices and
possibilities. Do this until you get a clear and satisfying decision.
You can just
memorize these questions. Most of the time we would not have time to sit and
pen down our choices or revisiting the decision wheel. So, you can just have in
mind some important questions and always use it when in time of decision
making.
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