Being indecisive is one of those traits that is a strength in small amounts and a weakness in larger amounts. After all, weighing your options and making sure you have all the information before making a decision is a good thing.
Some people get through life by making snap decisions all the time, but they often end up producing suboptimal results that way. It’s when indecision becomes a paralysis that it becomes a weakness, particularly when it begins to be a regular occurrence.
Getting over indecision is an important component of personal growth. You can do it using any or all of these techniques.
Practice
The more indecisive you’ve become, the more you need to practice. Start by deciding on small things that don’t matter, such as what to eat for lunch or which flavor of ice cream to get. Make these decisions quickly and without too much thought. Remember, these are “no-stress” decisions where nothing is at stake.
Make Fewer Decisions
You may be making too many decisions on the other side of the equation. Decision fatigue is real. We all have a limited capacity to make decisions daily. If you have to make too many in a day and find yourself getting indecisive after a while, it’s decision fatigue.
You fix this by reducing how many daily decisions you make through delegation, outsourcing, prioritizing, and other methods.
Put Aside Emotion
Emotions are tricky things. They’re meant to help us, but sometimes they get in the way. This is especially true when it comes to decision-making. Our emotions- notably fear -get tangled up when making important decisions. This can lead to indecisiveness.
Find a way to set aside your feelings and look at decisions rationally. Use logic, not instinct, to decide the right course of action.
Trust Yourself
Indecisiveness is often the result of self-doubt. Deep down, you don’t trust yourself to make the right decision. Practice working on trusting yourself. You are smart, capable, and competent; you can make the right decision!
Ask Someone Else
When all else fails, bring someone else in to make the decision. This should be someone you trust completely who understands the problem and what is at stake but isn’t tied to the outcome emotionally or otherwise. Then implement the decision they make.
This is a good tactic to use when you a decision has high stakes, and you are too entangled emotionally to extricate yourself enough to decide rationally. It should be used sparingly, but it is effective.