What choice will you make? How to Make a Tough Decision: Eight Sure Ways to Make the Right Choice

Making choices can be difficult, especially when you are in a critical situation. It doesn't matter whether you need to choose a life partner, a career path or new car- you are probably afraid of making the wrong decision. Try to be thoughtful about this process so you can clear your mind and look at both options objectively. Then compare the pros and cons of each solution. Your gut feeling will help you make the right choice.

Steps

Be thoughtful about your decision-making process

1. Compare both options

   1. Make a list of pros and cons for each option to see which is best for you. Write a list with two columns for each option: one with pros and one with cons. List the advantages and disadvantages of your choice of each option. When you're done, calculate which option has more "pros" and which choice will provide you with more benefits.

      • Quite often, even the process of making a pros and cons list helps you understand your feelings more clearly. You may find that you want to add more pros to one of the options so that you can make an informed choice in favor of that option.
      • You should not consider the situation of choice itself as something negative. When you give preference to one option or another, look at it on the positive side - you are making a great choice! This will help you understand what you are more in tune with.

   2. List Negative consequences each choice to avoid mistakes. Make a list of possible unpleasant consequences for each option (short and long term). This is a great way to narrow down your options if you have two good options and can't go wrong.

      • Consider any options that may be closed to you if you choose one of the options.
      • For example, if you live in Moscow and are planning to move to Rome, you will not have the opportunity to get an education at a local university, because you will be abroad.

   3. Use your gut instinct to come up with a pros and cons list. Make a single list of all the benefits for both possible options. Then quickly look through the list and assign only one option to each item. Don't get hung up! Just trust your intuition. Then look through the resulting list again and think about which option will provide you with more benefits.

      • Perhaps both options can provide some benefits. But the purpose of this exercise is to decide which option will better help you achieve your goals and realize your dreams.
      • For example, suppose you are choosing between two options for where to spend your vacation. Perhaps visiting these places is on your list of things to do while you are alive. You can make a list of things you need to do in your life right from the lists where all the pros are listed. By quickly running through this list, you may find that one of the destinations or options promises you a more desirable life experience than another.

   4. Use professional resources to objectively compare the two options. If you're deciding between two products, find a reliable customer review site (such as otzovik.com). The two options can be compared based on product performance, safety performance, and customer satisfaction with the product.

      • Review websites are a great way to get a clear picture of a product and prioritize the most important aspects that will influence your decision.
      • For example, if you are choosing between two child car seats and your priority is safety, you will be able to make a decision based on an objective comparison using this method.

   5. Find out if you really only need to choose one of the two options. Consider perhaps you could do both by scheduling both activities into your schedule or alternating between them. Sometimes it may seem to us that two options contradict each other, but, in fact, it turns out that they can harmonize perfectly.

      • For example, you feel like you have to choose between violin lessons and playing soccer on a team, when in fact you could do both on different days.

Each of us sometimes needs to do Difficult choice. We ask ourselves questions: what is better to choose, how to make the right choice, and what if?.. We find a lot of answers and still cannot decide.

These questions also tormented me and tore me apart until I heard the phrase:

“Before, he couldn’t make a choice because he didn’t know what would happen next. Now he knows what will happen and therefore cannot make a choice." © Mr. Nobody

These words of the main character of the film “Mr. Nobody” became an insight for me. This is brilliant: it’s difficult for us to choose, not because we don’t know what will happen, but because it’s difficult for us to refuse something. Choice is always a rejection of something in favor of an alternative. No matter how much you think, no matter how much you weigh and calculate your moves, it will not become easier. You still have to give up something.

You will say that sometimes we choose between what we have and new opportunities. I disagree. Even if we choose what we already have, for example, staying at this job instead of changing to a new one, we are still choosing for mythical prospects. Otherwise, if everything was good, the question of choice itself would not arise.

I’ll explain in more detail, we want to change something in life when we don’t like it. For example, work. The boss is a goat, career growth No, salaries were reduced due to the crisis, and naturally there is a desire to change the situation. And we begin to look for a job, and then the merciful Universe gives us such an opportunity, we are invited to an interview, one thing after another...

And here there are two options to choose from: either we choose between new offers and here we can only imagine what opportunities and privileges we will have in this or that company. And by choosing one, we give up the prospects of another. That is, We are afraid of losing what we don’t have.

There is another option, when the employer somehow senses that we can leave and promises to improve conditions. An important detail, improvements are only being talked about, they don’t exist in practice yet. And here we are again falling into this trap. “Damn, what should I choose? If the boss does what he says, then I won’t feel bad here either, although that job has more prospects, it’s more interesting, but it’s a different team and further from home...” And that’s it... away we go. We live again about what we have Not yet.

And on the one hand, it is by wanting to have what we don’t yet have that we grow and develop, but on the other hand, we suffer in a situation of choice. Where does this Plyushkin live in each of us?

But it definitely exists, look at your apartment right now and think, what of what is in the closets, on the balcony or mezzanine is high time to throw away?? I'm sure there's something for everyone. When going through a closet, we face a choice: keep it or throw it away? So what is the difficulty?? It's a pity to throw it away?

No, it’s a pity not because this thing is useful to us, but because it might come in handy! That is, again, this is the reluctance to lose an opportunity, to lose something that does not exist. After all, in fact, we do not use this thing , we definitely won’t need it in the near future, otherwise there would be no question of throwing it away. And so, and maybe someday...

Why is it so difficult to give up something? It seems to us that if we give up this now, we will never be able to get this chance back again. There are even a lot of films that revolve around the same theory: this chance comes only once in a lifetime, and if you don’t take it, then you’re a fool!

I beg to differ. Quite recently, I discovered this a way to deal with difficult choices . So, let's think logically: if in each option there is something that I don’t want to give up, then this extremely valuable to me ! It is very important to determine what is so valuable in this proposal. What perspective do we see for ourselves, what desire or need do we want to satisfy? Once we understand this, it will become much clearer.

Natural or fruity? Bio or regular? Is the packaging large or small? IN glassware or in plastic cups? It is impossible to count the number of questions that our brain must answer before our hand reaches for four small raspberry yoghurts in multi-colored packaging. And no study has yet established how many times we have to do this exercise before we fill the cart!

But once you think about it, it becomes clear why sometimes going to the store tires us so much. And why are there days when we don’t have the strength to decide which blouse to wear to work, or understand what exactly we want for breakfast...

Where one person sees a choice, another does not see it

We are forced to make a variety of decisions every minute. Our choice begins with a simple purchase of yoghurts, but extends to such important things as a life partner, profession, conceiving a child, political beliefs, a mortgage loan to buy an apartment for a period of 15–20 years...

We make many other decisions, not so significant, but causing vague anxiety: whether to get a flu shot, whether to transfer a child to another school, whether to change a doctor, whether to break unwritten rules.

It's difficult to choose. Let's try to understand what choice is and how we make it. And also take a few steps towards learning how to make informed decisions.

We are afraid of losing everything

It often happens that where one person sees a choice, another does not notice it. For example, for some of us, the boss’s words are something that is not discussed, that does not allow one’s choice, a different position. Others consider the commandments, humanity, common sense to be the criterion of truth - and then options are possible. “But there was one who didn’t shoot,” Vysotsky sang. So there is a choice even where we don’t see it - we can’t or don’t want to.

“The choice lies in what we are already actually doing,” writes psychotherapist Elena Kalitievskaya. “It seems like we are still choosing, that we are still on the threshold, but in fact we have already chosen and are living...”

When a decision is made, uncertainty disappears - out of several options, only one remains. Sometimes you can beat him without any consequences, more often you can’t. In this case, we take the choice more seriously and choose more accurately, in contrast to the situation when the decision is reversible. But in both cases we lose something. It is this inevitable moment of loss that causes our torment. Because of it, we often perceive the need to decide as a burden, trying with all our might to avoid making a choice or at least delay it.

Who really chooses?

This is not an idle question. Often it is not committed by the one who has to deal with the consequences: parents with the best intentions do it for the child, a caring husband for his wife, a leader for the people. When something has already been decided for us, we often perceive it with gratitude. Yet the worst service you can do to your neighbor is to remove responsibility for your life choices from him.

It will, of course, be easier for him to live, but he will not invest himself in carrying out decisions that were not made by him. And as a result life will pass past, will not become his own for him. This happens quite often: for some of us, the suffering of the heroes of television series is brighter and more genuine than anything that happens to us ourselves. But in order to use the chance given to us and live our own life, and not someone else’s, we must make decisions and make and correct mistakes ourselves.

What kind of elections are there?

Existential choice is a situation where alternatives and criteria are not predetermined. We must move forward without knowing what other opportunities will come along the way and how to compare them. This is how we choose a profession or a life partner.

There are situations in which choosing seems easier. This happens when the alternatives and criteria are obvious and all we have to do is carefully solve the problem that has the correct answer. For example, choose one of the routes around the city, taking into account the traffic jam situation.

Another case is more complicated: the alternatives are known, but they can be compared on different grounds. Which one is important for us? An example is any shopping. Let's say, when buying clothes, beauty, price, color, practicality, originality, etc. are important - but what is more important? There is no clear answer...

How rationally do we choose?

No matter how we try to build decisions on purely rational grounds, we deceive ourselves, says psychologist Daniel Kahneman, professor at Princeton University (USA). Irrational assumptions and prejudices always interfere with this process, which give rise to errors in our reasoning.

Thus, Kahneman showed that we are much more sensitive to losses than to gains: the pain of losing $20 is greater than the joy of receiving it. We are afraid of plane crashes, although they happen 26 times less often than car crashes, because messages about them are accompanied by impressive, memorable footage, in contrast to road accidents, information about which is presented in dry numbers.

In the process of choosing, we convince ourselves that most people would do the same in our place, and no real facts unable to convince us. It turns out that it is impossible to accurately calculate “how it will actually be”; we simply unconsciously “adjust” the decision to a ready-made answer, prompted by intuition, our many beliefs and prejudices. Whether they turn out to be right or not, that depends on your luck.

How to choose correctly?

This is perhaps the main question. Answer: the right choice cannot be made. “Our life is completed only once,” states the writer Milan Kundera, “and therefore we will never be able to determine which of our decisions was correct and which was false. In this situation, we can only decide once, and we are not given any second, third, fourth life to be able to compare different decisions.”

We can only say whether the decision made was good or bad from the point of view of satisfaction with it, but we cannot determine whether it was better or worse - after all, even a decision that is good in its consequences may not be the best, and a bad one may be the lesser of evils . It is not uncommon to choose between bad and very bad. Yegor Gaidar's economic reforms had many negative consequences, it is difficult to argue with that. But was there at that moment the best option? None of his passionate critics mention this option.

Possible error

If it's impossible to make the right choice, doesn't that mean we don't care what to choose? No, that doesn't mean it. A choice cannot be right or wrong, but it can be good or bad, and the line between them is drawn in our minds.

No choice can be made absolutely rationally; irrational, uncalculated components also play a large role in it. We have a chance to do a good choice, if we admit that there is no one objectively correct decision and with any option you can make a mistake. In this case, we act at our own peril and risk. We accept responsibility, recognize the decision as our own and invest in the implementation of what we have chosen. And in case of failure, we do not regret, but gain experience and learn from our mistakes.

If we are convinced that there is only one objectively correct decision, and we believe in the ability to rationally “calculate” it, believing that everything else will somehow happen by itself, we are making a bad choice. So many of us vote for the “right” candidate in the elections, and then “lie on the stove” until the next one. If our expectations are not met, we will most likely begin to blame everyone around us except ourselves and will feel disappointed, irritated, and resentful.

Making good choices is difficult because it requires effort, energy and the ability to choose. The outstanding English philosopher of the 17th century, John Locke, wrote that people so often make bad choices precisely because, while they are well aware of the immediate, especially pleasant consequences, they are much less able to assess the distant, often not so rosy, prospects.

And yet, some of us make decisions so quickly that the illusion of ease and spontaneity arises. Those who have experience making decisions, including moral ones, who know how to put forward and evaluate arguments for and against, who strive to see the long-term consequences of their decisions, make more accurate choices even in the most difficult situations.

Is it possible to choose faith?

The conscious decisions we made in the past determine what we believe now, philosopher Julian Baggini argues in his blog: “In every this moment we certainly don't choose what to believe. But we can resolve to make every effort to overcome our destructive tendency to believe what is convenient to believe, and to develop the habit of believing only well-founded statements.

Then faith will be the result of thinking about what arguments are convincing, how much we are willing to doubt our motives and analyze them. Our decisions become freer when they involve the ability to reflect and compare. We cannot decide whether or not to believe in God, but we can decide how much we will consider inconvenient facts and false motives. And in this sense, we are responsible for what we believe in.”

Ideal choice

To accomplish it, you need to go through and weigh all possible alternatives. But most often this is impossible, since this process requires a lot of time and energy - the psychological costs of the process itself grow faster than the benefits of sorting through options. American psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper proved this with this example.

When customers were asked to choose from 24 types of jam, the majority, even after trying all the options, left the store with nothing. They just couldn't choose. When the choice was limited to six jars, jam was purchased ten times more often. So the abundance of alternatives and the desire for perfect choice leads, alas, to negative results.

American social psychologist Barry Schwartz believes that in such situations, part of us (he calls such people maximizers) always strives not to miss a single option and collects comprehensive information before making a decision. The other part (optimizers), having gone through a certain number of alternatives, draws a line: they choose from what they managed to look at and evaluate. Which one do you think is happier and more successful in life?

“There are always several correct choices”

Yulia Latynina, journalist

I think there is no right choice in the full sense of the word. That is, there are always several correct choices. The main thing for us is not to make the wrong choice. For example, if I started studying physics, I would hardly make the wrong life choice - it would be terribly interesting. But if I were involved in prostitution, it would be the wrong choice.

If in doubt, even flipping a coin “heads” or “tails” - in the absence of other criteria - is not so stupid: according to classical theory games, in the absence of information best way decision making is random selection. How to choose a partner for life? As well as life path- free. Or overcoming what makes us unfree.

But even if we made a bad choice, we shouldn’t be upset about it - it’s better to think about what to do next. There is a rule that pilots once told me about: if an emergency occurs on a plane, the main thing is not to worry about why it happened, but to land the plane.”

Immutability or obscurity

Any choice ultimately comes down to a choice between immutability and uncertainty, as the outstanding psychologist Salvatore Maddi proves in his works. Stepping into the unknown creates anxiety, but also gives a chance to find meaning. Choosing immutability reduces anxiety, but generates guilt for unrealized opportunities.

In unimportant situations, the new, unknown is chosen by those who are distinguished by a meaningful attitude to life, resilience, and optimism. It seems that those who find the strength to choose an unknown future have much greater personal resources.

In the case of the key life choice, such as the choice of a life partner, Barry Schwartz suggests that it should be considered final from the very beginning: “Panging doubts about whether your love is “real” or your sexual relations- really passionate, and thinking that your choices could have been better is a recipe for misery.”

Learn to choose

It's necessary! To make a decision in which we will not be disappointed, we need to accurately define our goal, understand our desires, and collect and evaluate the available information. The main thing here is not what exactly we choose, but how we make this choice - consciously or spontaneously. In the first case, there is a real inner work, in the second - intuition or simply the desire to “not worry.”

We have different attitudes towards choice: some are happy when it is available, others would prefer to receive a ready-made answer. The ability to meaningfully decide for oneself and for oneself reflects a person’s maturity, his adulthood. Children don't really know how to choose. Of course, they know perfectly well what they want at the moment, but they cannot take into account even slightly delayed consequences of their decisions. This skill comes with age, when readiness for choice gradually develops.

Choice in itself is neither good nor bad. It expands our capabilities, but does everyone need it? An increase in the number of possible options simultaneously means an increase in responsibility and requirements for the one who makes the choice. An adult is no happier than a child, just as a queen is no happier than a pawn. It’s just that his happiness is much more in his own hands.

“Give children the opportunity to try everything to the maximum”

Tatyana Bednik, psychologist

To help your child discover what he really prefers, it is important to give him the opportunity to try as many things as possible. various options, explains developmental psychologist Tatyana Bednik. Tatyana Bednik works as a psychologist at a school and the Moscow Treatment Center psychological assistance children and teenagers. She is the author of the training “Effective interaction between parents and children.”

Psychologies: At what age do children learn to choose?

Tatiana Bednik: Even the smallest children make choices many times a day, but for now they are intuitive and emotional. From the age of two, they can distinguish the taste of foods well and, therefore, can choose what they like. By the age of five or six, they develop preferences for certain colors and, therefore, preferences in clothing. By the age of 10–12, a teenager can be expected to make conscious moral decisions and actions: doing this is good, and doing this is bad.

Why do children need to be taught this?

A child is by nature a conservative. If he eats pasta every day, and one day he is asked to choose between pasta and, for example, cauliflower, he will inevitably vote for pasta! But this will be a tribute to habit, not a choice. Therefore, it is important that parents give children the opportunity to get acquainted with other options - gently, delicately, spurring their natural curiosity, attracting attention. Only in this way will children be able to understand what they like best and choose exactly that.

How to teach a child to choose?

Paradoxically, learning to do this goes through a stage of coercion. It is necessary for the child to try both borscht and fish soup so he can find out what he likes best. Even if it is not in fashion now, we must confront children with necessity. IN in this case Let's say, let's say that this is the only dish for lunch today. And tomorrow it will be completely different. And only after this will he be able to ask for what he likes best - when he finds out for himself, when he stops “choosing” the usual. This science is being learned day by day!

Human life is made up of big and small decisions. Every day we make choices about what time to get up, what to eat for breakfast, and which route to take to work. Even such little things sometimes cause serious concern, not to mention something larger: which university to enter, what job to get, who to marry - or maybe get divorced, quit and go in search of something better? The answer to such questions is often depression, a desire to trust to chance or simply leave everything as it is and go with the flow. After all, having done something, you often have to regret it later. But it is no less common to repent of inaction. How to learn to make the right choice?

Lack of information

One of the main obstacles that appears when you need to make a choice is the incompleteness of the available information. It is impossible to foresee all the difficulties, prevent all the problems, calculate all the details - simply because, alas, we are not given the ability to see the future. On the other hand, each of the available options is, at least a little bit, a pig in a poke.

Fatalism and knowledge

The consequences of our actions are difficult to predict, but this is not a reason not to make a choice and surrender to the mercy of fate. First, find out as much as you can about the items you choose. True, it is still impossible to find out absolutely everything about them and exclude the will of chance from the most well-thought-out plan. All you have to do is come to terms with it and believe in yourself: no matter what you do, no matter what happens, you can handle it possible problems and reap the benefits. This thought reduces internal tension: you no longer require yourself to make a choice completely unmistakably.

Decision making methods

1. You can sit down, lie down, walk down the street (as you think best) and mentally weigh all the options. You can do the same on a piece of paper: describe each option, its advantages and disadvantages. For greater clarity, you can even draw a table, in the columns of which you list all the pros and cons of each option, and then add them up - and maybe with peace of mind choose the option that has the most advantages. Just do not forget that their quantity does not always correspond to quality.

2. There is also a less rational way. Dry calculations of income and expenses are meaningless if what is more important to you is how you will feel in a given situation. Then it is better to imagine each possible option one by one and experience it in your imagination. This way you will know what your emotional reaction will be in a particular case, and whether you will like it.

3. Trust your intuition. Making a choice with its help is an invaluable talent: if it is possible to foresee accidents, it is only with the help of such an irrational instinct. This does not mean that you need to choose at random, but if you feel like, contrary to all logic, something is telling you a completely different solution, do not rush to throw it out of your head.

Some are more natural for you, some less: it depends on your mindset. It’s more convenient and easier to use your own, but it’s worth trying others and using them in parallel: this way you can look at your problem from different angles and get a more complete picture.

What should you do if you are a leader and you are faced with a difficult choice? Remember, as in a fairy tale: execution cannot be pardoned, dismissal cannot be left, and it is unclear where to put a comma. In this article we will talk about several ways to make the right decision. This will help not only businessmen, but also ordinary people who find themselves in a difficult situation.

If you are trapped

Usually making a difficult decision is necessary in a difficult life situation. Stress affects a person in different ways: some withdraw into themselves, some worry and do not sleep at night, some become hysterical and take it out on loved ones. One thing remains unchanged: a person seems to fall into the trap of his own psyche; he is often unable to make a choice on his own and acts under the influence of emotions or his close environment. Time shows that impulsive and ill-considered decisions are ineffective and can ruin your business, your career, your relationships, in the end. Remember: all serious decisions are made with cool head. Therefore, before you put into practice the methods described below, do this: turn off your heart and turn on your head. We'll show you how.

There are several ways to pacify emotions:

• short term - breathe correctly. Take 10 deep, slow breaths - this will help you calm down;
• medium-term - imagine that your friend finds himself in such a situation and asks you for advice. What will you tell him? Surely throw away all emotions and try to look at the situation detachedly, objectively. So try it;
• long-term - take a time out. Just let the situation go for a while, do other things, and come back to it after a week or month. This way you will kill two birds with one stone: firstly, you will cut off impulsive decisions and will not cut from the shoulder. And secondly, the right decision will ripen in your head like a ripe fruit - you just need to give it time.

Now that emotions no longer influence your choices, let's talk about eight reliable methods for making decisions.

1. Pros and cons method

Use the good old method: take a sheet of paper and a pen, draw the sheet in half. In the left column write all the advantages of the chosen solution, in the right column - respectively, the disadvantages. Don't limit yourself to just a few items: there should be 15-20 items on the list. Then calculate what will be more. Profit!

The essence of the methoda: even if you endlessly scroll through the pros and cons in your head, full picture you're unlikely to see it. Psychologists advise making written lists: this helps to organize the accumulated information, visually see the ratio of pros and cons, and draw a conclusion based on pure mathematics. Why not?

2. Create habits

This method is suitable if you find it difficult to make a choice everyday issues. For example, to increase the salary of a new employee, or if it’s not worth it yet, put it on the website or another company. What to eat for dinner, in the end, French fries or fish with vegetables. A difficult decision, of course, but still not a matter of life and death. In this case, it is useful to consciously create habits for yourself and follow them in the future. For example, introduce an iron rule: increase employee salaries only after six months of working in your company. Buying office supplies exclusively from Skrepka is cheaper. Eat light for dinner and healthy dishes- you yourself will thank you soon. Well, with the call back you get it, yes.

The essence of the method: following your habits, you will make simple decisions automatically, saving yourself from unnecessary thoughts, without wasting precious time on nonsense. But then, when you need to do something truly responsible and important choice, you will be fully armed.

3. “If-then” method

This method is suitable for resolving current problems in business, team, and personal life. For example, your employee speaks impolitely to customers and does not respond to comments. Question: should I fire him immediately or try to re-educate him? Try using the “if-then” technique. Tell yourself: if he again mistreats a client, you will deprive him of his bonus. If the incident happens again, fire me.

The essence of the method:as in the first case, this is the creation of conditional boundaries within which you will act. The burden will immediately be lifted from the soul, and life will become much easier. And most importantly, you don’t have to waste time thinking and thinking about the fate of a careless employee.

It was invented by the famous American journalist Susie Welch. The rule is: before you make a difficult decision, stop and answer three questions:

• what will you think about it 10 minutes later;
• How will you feel about your choice in 10 months;
• What will you say in 10 years?

Let's give an example. Let's take young man, who works as a manager, doesn’t like his job, but endures it because he needs the money. He dreams of quitting his job, taking out a loan and opening his own business - a small pub, but at the same time he is desperately afraid of going broke and losing everything he has. In general, a classic case when a bird in the hand is preferred to a pie in the sky.

It’s difficult for our hero to take the first step - quit his hated job. Let's say he does this. In ten minutes he will hardly have time to regret it. the decision taken. In 10 months, he will already have time to rent the premises, equip the pub and receive clients. And if it doesn’t work out - he’ll find a job as a manager anyway - so what’s there to regret? Well, in 10 years, this choice is unlikely to have any significance at all: either the business will continue, or our hero will work in another place - one of two things. It turns out that if you follow the 10/10/10 rule, making a decision no longer becomes so challenging task, because a person clearly understands what awaits him in the future.

The essence of the method: when making a difficult decision, we are usually overwhelmed by emotions: fear, anxiety, or vice versa, joy and excitement. A person feels it right here and now; feelings obscure the prospects for the future. Remember, as in Yesenin: “You can’t see a face face to face, a big one is seen at a distance.” As long as the future seems cloudy and vague, the choice of solution will be postponed again and again. By making concrete plans, presenting his emotions in detail, a person rationalizes the problem and stops being afraid of the unknown - because it becomes simple and understandable.

Read also: Three real stories.

5. Solve within 15 minutes

Paradoxical as it may seem, in 15 minutes you should take the most important, strategic decisions. A familiar situation: a company has a serious problem that requires immediate action, but the point is that no one knows the right solution. For example, competitors have done something nasty, and it is not clear what to do: respond in kind or get out of the situation with dignity. Or the crisis has hit your company, and you are confused: to move to a less prestigious place or to lay off a dozen employees. How can you make the right choice, and is there even one? And you begin to procrastinate, unable to make a decision, in the hope that everything will resolve itself.

If you don’t know which solution is correct, just imagine that there is no correct answer to this life problem. Give yourself 15 minutes and make any, absolutely any, decision. Yes, at first glance this may seem crazy. What about planning, and what about testing and verifying solutions? Ok, ok, if you can quickly and with a minimum investment check the correctness of the solution, check it. If this requires months of time and millions of rubles, it is better to abandon this idea and immediately record the time.

The essence of the method: Needless to say, if you waste time, nothing gets solved: crises don’t go away, rental prices don’t go down, and competitors become even sharper. One unmade decision leads to others, the business sags and becomes ineffective. As they say, it is better to do than to regret, than not to do and regret.

6. Don't limit yourself to narrow boundaries

The same thing we wrote about at the beginning. Execute or pardon, buy a car or not, expand or wait for better times. One of two things, hit or miss, oh, it was not! But who said that a problem has only two solutions? Get out of the narrow framework, try to look at the situation more broadly. It is not necessary to organize a large-scale expansion of production - it is enough to launch a couple of new positions. Instead of an expensive car, you can purchase a more modest option, and apply disciplinary measures to the employee who committed the crime for the first time.

The essence of the method: when there are only two solution options, there is a greater chance of choosing the right decision, and many deliberately simplify their lives by dividing the situation into yes and no, black and white. But life is much more diverse: don’t be afraid to look it in the eye and accept everything possible options. The solution may be a compromise, a rejection of both extremes in favor of a third, completely unexpected solution, or a successful combination of two options. This often happens when the owner of a small business cannot decide what to do: sit on the phone, deliver orders or deal only management activities. Start combining - and then you will see what works best. This will be the optimal solution to the problem.