Making Good Decisions: A Priceless Life Skill

All around the world, we as people share the same experiences, one of the most common is making decisions. Our lives are composed of the decisions we make every day, whether they are good or bad. Every choice we make in life whether big or small has had an effect on us and others, as well ourselves.

To get a better understanding of how we even come up with the decisions we make, Evgeniy Bart author of “Making Expert Decisions Easier to Fathom”.

This article can help give people a better visual of how individuals decide, and what kinds of factors impact the basic choices in the present and throughout our lifetime. Studies have shown that how we make our decisions are based on the cognitive process. This means that we choose from multiple alternative possibilities from an action. It’s the process of identifying and choosing the best solution for that particular situation. We use this throughout our daily tasks, like problem-solving to fix a leak in the kitchen fridge.

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Or figuring out how to fix dinner for a child who’s very picky.

Decisions characterize our identity as a person; it demonstrates our character to the world. So if someone decides to always be late for work, we get the idea that we can’t rely on them, based off the decision they make to not to make it on time. To improve the chances of settling on better decisions and avoiding the awful ones, we must take a look at ourselves and correct or try to improve the things that stop us from choosing the better option.

Consciously or not we're always making choices without even noticing it. Try attempting to go a day without making a decision. This is almost impossible due to the fact that at every moment of the day we make a decision. We choose to go workout and lose weight, or stay home and eat cake. Deciding to do homework that’s due the next day, or waiting till the period before to finish it. No one here is perfect in any shape, form, or fashion and that is completely okay. We often beat ourselves up for making silly or bad mistakes every once in a while. The fear of putting our character in jeopardy and people getting a false image is just terrifying, but it all lies in the choices we make.

Consistently, individuals are submerged with choices, of all shapes and sizes. It can sometimes be troublesome if not difficult to make what you think right then and there will be the correct decision at that point and time. It’s really common for people to feel this way, but it’s up to that person on whether they chose to continue on or not. One of the greatest obstacles that will keep people down is that over and over again we are not totally clear on what kind of result we need from that situation. Steffel, Mary, and Elanor F. Williams brought up a good point in an article. “A desire to avoid responsibility for potentially making the wrong choice rather than simply the desire to avoid the possibility of a poor outcome.” In some cases, people continue to go with it to see what that possible outcome is, knowing it could be failing. This shows that they’re not afraid of falling down and that they are willing to learn from that decision in order to be better themselves and build character. Others avoid it completely not giving it a chance which causes regret later on, showing their lack of confidence and assurance of themselves.

There was a situation where I wasn’t completely sure about going down a steep road on my scooter. Mind you, I was around seven so my thought process was different and I wasn’t sure of my possible outcome, but I thought what the heck. Long story short, I had terribly bad scraped knees and elbows. Not clear of my outcome, I made a bad decision to go down that hill which resulted in injury. Instead of not going down the hill and staying safe. That helped me to build character

The decisions you make on a daily basis can have a ground-breaking impact. A mind-blowing possibility can show up all of a sudden just to transform into something unpleasant. We tend to see our daily decisions as if they are independent or isolated from each other. They tend to pose as less than and not important and that might be the case, but those add up and is now we have a group of choices that you know face. Pondering every one of these decisions independently may look like nothing to you. However, joining them and seeing the entire picture opens your eyes.

A prime example, I struggle with trying to get up in the morning for school. So I decide to get an extra few minutes of sleep not not thinking much of it at the time. But now I’ve realized there’s not as much time to get ready and am now rushing to get out the house in a timely manner. Since I woke up late there’s no time to eat a proper breakfast and now dashing out the door with an empty stomach. At school hungry, it’s harder for me to focus because I’m hungry suffering from the last decision you made. So on and so forth, this creates a downward spiral based off all the small decisions I thought didn’t have a major influence on me.

In the article, “Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow's challenges Profits”, Robert Wendover gave good points on how to take people into consideration before coming up with a decision. Will my decision impact affect anyone positively or negatively? We also often think that our decisions don't affect others, but they do. Our personal choices affect more than just ourselves. So to all the people who say, “That’s their decision, as long as it doesn't affect me, I'm good.”, you're wrong. Someone will always be affected by the decisions we make big or small.

With that being said, the choices we make shouldn't be taken lightly, or without a care knowing the possible damage we could cause in the lives of others. For instance, at some point we’ve all that one classmate or co-worker who never does their part in an activity. Their careless decision to not do their portion now causes you to have to pick up their slack to get the job done. Recognizing that every decision made will influence someone else is an important method to live, and with the big things, as well as with little choices as well. Decisions matter, people around you matter and when there is attention to the impact a decision can have, there are better results.

The steps we can take to make better choices for ourselves are simple but will take much practice. You first we have to acknowledge that the choices shape our lives and anything that happens stems from those choices made by you. We have to understand that we have the power to choose something different that can change our lives for the better instead of keeping it the same.

Start to create goals and motives to propel yourself for greatness. Know what you want because when you’re mindful of that goal you want, it minimizes the chances of going outside of what you’re working towards and making it much easier to chose the better option. Take others into consideration as well because as I mentioned earlier in the paper, they too are affected by the choices made by you. Make sure you weigh and look at all of your possible options before settling on one.