(The article is originally published in the Issue 13 of the EuSci – the Edinburgh University Science Magazine)
Credit: Lita Murphy
There is a good chance that right now you are faced with making a decision. You might be wondering what to do to finally come to this really difficult decision. Often the first response when hitting a crossroad is to worry, run through various bad scenarios in our heads, or ask friends, relatives and Facebook. Yet there are few simple things we can do to help ourselves to take an empowering decision, and that’s what I’ll be sharing with you in this article.
For now we’ll talk about making small decisions, the kinds of decisions we are faced with on a daily basis. We tend to spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what is the best thing to do. What we don’t realise is that most things don’t really matter; it won’t make much or any difference no matter which option we pick. It was a big eye opener when I came across this concept a few years ago whilst reading “The Four Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss; and although the working time of a PhD student extends far beyond just four hours a week, applying this concept to your daily routine can totally rock your productivity.
The idea is simple: next time you are faced with having to decide on something small, save your time and energy, and quickly pick one of the options. Reading this you probably know exactly in which instances in the recent past you could have picked any option and it would not have made any difference; yet failing to decide which option to pick left you, and your whole project, stuck for days or even weeks. You were looking for justification for picking one particular option, but often it is much more effective to skip the justification and pick any option to allow yourself to get moving with the project and focus on other more important tasks.
When it comes to life changing decisions, obviously you cannot just pick one option or the other without thinking. In this case it will make a big difference which road you pick. But try not to obsess about making the RIGHT decision. Of course making the right decision is the best thing you can do. But the truth is that making a wrong decision is the second best thing you can do, and the worst thing you can do is not to make any decision. Just think about this for a minute. Look at it this way: if you don’t make a decision, you don’t move, you don’t evolve, you don’t change; you remain stuck in the unwanted situation you are in right now.
Start getting comfortable with the idea that making wrong decision is OK! Thomas Watson, former CEO of IBM, once said: “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate”. What happens is that you set yourself in motion even though you might not have made the right decision; in many cases though you can amend your wrong decision or steer it in a slightly different direction. It is also possible that some new exciting opportunities will open up even if the decision was wrong from your particular point of view.
I cannot really teach you how to come to the right decision or tell you what the right decision is, but what I can help you do is to make this decision from a more empowering place. You CAN reach a decision that is going to empower you, the one that you are not going to constantly regret and ask yourself “why did I make this decision?”
When we are faced with having to decide on something, we often look at our current situation, at the people who surround us and at our current circumstances. We listen to the thoughts and feelings we currently have. What I want to suggest you do instead is to imagine the person you want to become as the result of this decision. Imagine the circumstances, feelings, and thoughts you want to have after you make this decision; imagine the people you want to be surrounded by after you come to this decision.
Start to approach making a big decision not from the place where you are right now, but from the place where you want to be, or from the perspective of that person you want to become. This is going to help you to reach an empowering decision!
Related articles:
How to thrive as a research student. Part 1. What NOT to do. (olgadegtyareva.com)
How to thrive as a research student. Part 2. Overcoming self-doubt. (olgadegtyareva.com)
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