How to make better decisions in your career and life? The Designing Your Life decision-making process
There is one thing that I hear often from my clients: “I don´t know what decision to make. I am not sure what´s the best choice for me”, followed by this sentence: “I wish I was more decisive and finally moved on!”. So let´s talk about decision-making and how the Designing Your Life framework can help with that. Because when you want to change your career, choose a new job, or create a different life, you´ll face a lot of decisions. You will have to choose whether you really want to say goodbye to your current job or not, you'll have to decide on a new path, and you'll have to commit to taking action, otherwise, nothing will move forward. And doing so feels overwhelming for many. So they stay in a job that feels draining, a career that is unfulfilling, and a life that is far from what would be possible. This is not only a waste of lifetime, opportunities, and happiness but unnecessary too because making good decisions in your career and life is not that hard. We´ll get to that in a minute and talk in detail about how Designing Your Life can help. But first, let´s have a look at why decision-making can feel difficult. Why is making decisions so hard?
What is it that makes it difficult to decide? There are several reasons why so many of us struggle with choosing and committing to one way forwad.Fear of missing out (FOMO)
For many, choosing one thing equals choosing against many other options. This creates pressure and decision anxiety. Particularly when so much seems possibilities and you are exposed to an endless flow of examples of how your life could look like (hello, social media!).Lack of clarity
Often, it just doesn't seem to be clear which decision is the best to choose. This might be due to a lack of information when the available options are too similar, or the decision factors are not clearly defined.Is this forever?
When you are dealing with high-impact decisions like changing your career or moving city, committing to a step can feel daunting. Choosing one option over the other can feel irreversible and like you have to stick to this decision forever. And although in reality, this is rarely the case, the pressure is real and prevents you from moving forward.Not sure about yourself and what you want and need
The biggest reason why people struggle with decisions that I see is when they are not sure about themselves. If you don´t know who you truly are, what you want from life, and what your deepest needs are, it will be hard to make a confident and considered decision.We never learned to make good decisions
Although learning how to choose is part of growing up, we usually never learned how to make considered, good decisions and what criteria could help to choose better. We neither learned how to consciously create our path in life either. Another reason why Designing Your Life is such an important skill set to have!Whatever the reasons are why you struggle with making a decision, the result is the same: feeling stuck and not moving forward. This stagnation is a source of frustration and can damage your self-trust and confidence, let alone all the opportunities you miss because you are caught up in overwhelm.So what can you do to make better decisions so you can move forward with your career and life? And how can Designing Your Life help?✨ I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU: If you want to get clear on your number one tool for better decision making, then get my free worksheet for instant clarity & direction. Get the worksheet here. ✨
The Designing Your Life process for good decision making
Decisions making in Designing Your Life consists of four phases, each focused on a different step of the process. Step 1: Brainstorm ideas and create options
Not sure what the right decision is? What career step to take? What path to choose in your professional or personal life? In Designing Your Life we believe that the first step is to generate as many ideas as possible first! This step is crucial - and a new and fun experience for most people because it´s all about coming up with a lot of different ideas, brainstorming options, and playing around with possibilities. It´s important that at this stage your whole focus lies on creating those ideas. It´s not the time to evaluate or even make a decision but to allow yourself to explore your options freely. That way, you´ll come up with solutions you might not have thought about before! Invest some time in this step and allow yourself to think big, dream, and your imagination to run wild!Tools for idea generation
MIND MAPPINGA mind map is a fantastic tool to brainstorm ideas! You start from one central word or question and associate ideas from there. Let your imagination take the lead and write down everything that comes to your mind.JOURNALINGUsing your journaling practice to brainstorm ideas is a great way too to discover new options. One question to start with: “If there were no limitations, what would I do?” and see what comes up! Or start with these journaling promots!DESIGNING YOUR LIFE TOOLSThe Designing Your Life framework has several tools that will help you to discover new options for your career and life. The most popular ones are the Designing Your Life Work View & Life View exercise and the Designing Your Life Odyssee Plans.Step 2: narrow down your options
You created this list with all the things you could do with your life, everything that could be possible. And chances are high that now you feel more overwhelmed than before! You might wonder how to choose the right options from all those possibilities. And you might feel the urge to research more, to learn more about your ideas. Because once you have all the information handy, you´ll know what to choose, right? The thing is: it´s rarely a lack of information that makes it hard for you to decide on the “right” thing. In Designing Your Life, we are convinced that if you are at the point of making a decision, you know enough already! You've done your homework. You know everything you need to know at this stage. So if it is not the lack of information, what is it then that makes decision-making so hard? It´s the vast amount of options and your attachment to all of them! Because as much as we humans love to have many options, we have a hard time deciding when faced with a lot of different choices! Research shows that we can only make an effective decision when having to choose between 3-5 options. If there are more possibilities we experience decision anxiety and usually make no decision at all. So what can you do to make the right choice?
You have to reduce your options! You want to come down to the 3-5 options you can handle and use as the basis for every further step. How? Designing Your Life has a pretty straightforward approach: just strike some (the majority!) of your ideas from your list! I know what you think now: Laura, this is insane! What if I eliminate the wrong idea? Very simple answer: You will notice! If you strike something off your list that is an important option for you, it will show! You will feel it! Trust me!Still having a hard time shortening your list with options?
Then it does not matter what option you choose because all of them seem to be relevant. So if that is the case it´s time for trivial criteria to choose your 3-5 favorites: Which company has the nicer office or prettier logo? Which career has the better career perspective or the nicer/cooler/happier network of people? Which city the better food or cheaper rents? What option is easier to execute, cheaper, and less complicated? Again: trust me, you´ll choose the right options! It´s all about taking action, so you then can create the career and life you are dreaming of. The only way to do that is to start moving and taking one step after the other! Step 3: Choosing (now for real)
In case you wonder why you had to come up with all those ideas just to strike them off your list again - it is because in Designing Your Life, we want to make sure that you will be able to choose from the best options. The more ideas you come up with the higher the chances are that you have some really good and exciting ideas among them!And if you wonder how to choose the best option now, then I have good news for you: there is one tool you can use to make really good, aligned, “right” decisions with more ease! Your intuition!The role your intuition plays when it comes to making the right decision!
A lot of research was done around decision-making in the last years and one result is very clear: we don´t make rational choices but act intuitively! The reason for that is that the part of our brain that is involved in decision making (the so-called basal ganglia) is not connected to the speech center, so it does not communicate through words, but through feelings and several connections to our stomach. Yes, your gut feeling. Or in other words: your intuition!Your intuition is a repository of knowledge that your brain accesses to make decisions. It recalls previous experiences, compares and analyzes situations, and based on that, makes a decision. All subconsciously, without you noticing!Hence, to make better decisions, you need to connect with your feelings and intuition!Once you internalized that you´ll realize that when not sure what decision to make it´s not about gathering more information but feeling more! If you start combining both: rational information gathering and intuitive decision making, you´ll make faster, easier, and better choices!How to connect to your intuition
THE CLASSIC TOOLSAll kinds of spiritual practices can help you to connect better with your intuition. Among them are meditation, mindfulness training, journaling, yoga, praying, and more.CREATE SPACEIf you are stressed your body and mind have no capacity to focus on the big questions in life but are busy with keeping you alive. Therefore it´s crucial to reduce stress, create space, and allow time to connect to your intuition.PRACTICEWhen you have not paid a lot of attention to your gut feeling in a while, connecting to your intuition might require practice. A simple tool is to frequently ask yourself: “How am I doing right now? What do I need most right now?” Both questions will instantly connect you with your inherent knowledge and sharpen your awareness of what you really want and need. Step 4: Let go and move on!
After you made a decision, two thoughts can arise: Was this the right decision? What if there was a better option? Pondering about these questions will not help you move forward but keep you stuck. Therefore, step 4 of the Designing Your Life decision-making process is to let go and move on. In other words: owning the decision you made, committing to it, and taking it from there. Building your way forward as you go.How to own your decisions and move on?
CURRENT BEST THINKINGIf you tend to second-guess your decisions, then remind yourself that you made the decision to the best of your knowledge. You chose an option with the information you had at that time - and therefore it was the best choice you could make. In Designing Your Life, we call this “current best thinking” and it´s the capacity to honor that you made the best decision possible at the time you made it and own your choice gracefully.TRUST YOURSELFWhatever choice you made, you can trust yourself. You can trust your skills, your knowledge, and your abilities that you can handle what will come your way. And you can trust that if things would get complicated you´ll be able to fix things and build your path forward from there. Remember, this is Designing Your Life - so think like a designer and trust that you´ll find a solution in case you made the “wrong” decision. OWN YOUR DECISIONThis requires discipline, but ultimately, making decisions also means owing to your decisions. So instead of hiding in victim mode, it´s time to take responsibility for your life. Making decisions (regardless of how uncomfortable this can be) is the only way to leave a draining career behind and start creating a work-life that feels purposeful and good.Learning and internalizing this process Designing Your Life process for decision making can take some time - and will require you to stretch yourself and commit to doing things differently than before. But ultimately, it´s just like everything else: you will get better with time and you´ll make decisions easier, fast and better very soon!✨ I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU: If you want to get clear on your number one tool for better decision making, then get my free worksheet for instant clarity & direction. Get the worksheet here. ✨
————
Hey, I am Laura a certified Designing Your Life Coach, recruitment professional, podcaster, multi-passionate career changer, and business owner, In my Designing Your (Work) Life 1:1 Coaching series, I will help you to gain clarity about what you want in life and your career, equip you with the tools you need to create a fulfilling (work) life and move through challenges along the way. Because this is not only about a job but about what life you want to live! 🌿
