Decision Spirals.

From audiences I speak to all across the world to the one on one coaching clients I have, some in very high positions, most people say they are weak decision-makers.

They are not as straight forward as saying yes or no...well the final outcome may be that but the way we arrive at decisions can be complex.

For example, I want you to think of how you arrive at making a decision.

Interesting thought process isn't it? It's one many person never give time to.

To keep it simple imagine you are walking along and you see a wallet on the ground but it's empty and only with a license inside. 

You may think to yourself; I will hand this into the police station. You can also decide to leave it or take it home. Each option spirals out multiple micro decisions.

Take the same scenario with a twist.

You're walking along and see a wallet on the ground but this time filled with $1,750 and a license.

You may think to yourself; I will hand this into the police station. You can also decide to leave it or take it home. Each option spirals out multiple micro decisions. 

The weight of the decision for the wallet with cash will be entirely different from one with no money. 

What guides the decision you make and the one you enact? 

Your values help align what to do and your morals also guide you. 

Weighing up if you get caught doing the wrong thing with the good feeling of doing the right thing, even potentially dealing with a strange sense of loss for handing it in.

You may decide to keep it but then think what will other people think of you and ONLY for that reason do you hand it in.

You may think I want to be known as a good person and good people hand in wallets and then berate themselves for engaging in the fantasy of keeping it and getting away with it.

Or perhaps you do keep it, get away with it and you're fine with that but then the act of stealing attracts more negative consequences than you bargained for.

The point is; it's never as simple as just doing the thing. 

There is always a narrative in your mind about how the decision will play out.

Saying to someone just make a decision is like telling a fat person to just lose weight it does not deal with the root cause.

You've got to get to a point once you've weighed up all facts, all stories that may be told, the consequences of it all, that when you have made your account - you decide and you go.

Vaughan.