Japanese Department

張甄庭Molly

How to Make Good Decisions

We people need to make many decisions in our whole life, so whether we are a good decision maker or not is important. It seems every time we turn around, we have to make more decisions. So we should develop useful decision- making skills. With practice, we can improve our ability to make proper decisions in all areas of our life.

But, before knowing how to make good decisions, we should notice how to avoid making mistakes before decision is made. First, only hearing what we want to hear or see what we want to see is very dangerous. If we have expectations that we are not aware of, we will see what want to see. Likewise, if someone tries to tell us something we do not want to hear, we simply do not hear them. This is common mistake that many people make. So we should be objective and stay open to everything. On the other hand, we need to pay attention to other people’s suggestion. Many people underestimate or even neglect the value of information we receive from others. Insufficient information makes us make wrong decision. On the other hand, sometimes people do not know much about the problems we are encountering and their value might not be like ours, so we should avoid overestimating their opinions. Furthermore, if we have prejudice toward something, we will not make decisions correctly. Besides that, if we do not get enough information, it is hard for us to make decisions efficiently. We can not follow our feeling when we are making decisions. Following our feeling is not objective at all, because we will ignore important facts at the same time, close down possible ways to resolution. To sum up, if we can get away from these mistakes that people usually make, the chance we can make good decisions is great.

After knowing these pitfalls, we can start to learn some important decision- making skills. First, we should define, as specifically as possible. What the decision that needs to be made? Do you really need to make a decision? When does the decision need to be made? Why is this decision important to us? Who will be affected by this decision? What values does this decision involve for you? And then we should brainstorm as many different alternatives as we can imagine. In this way, we can get more information than we only come up a few ideas. We can look for the information from family, friends, professors, newspapers, magazines, etc. The more information we can get, the more convenient the decision will be made. Next, we need to consider the values that each alternative can bring. Looking for the alternatives allows us to use the greatest number of our values. Moreover, we should visualize the outcomes of each alternative. And then, we should find which alternative fits us. Review the alternatives we have made and decide which one we will feel most comfortable. The one we choose is the wise decision. If we are very happy about a decision, but are not comfortable with its possible outcome, this is a clue that this is not a wise decision for us. On the other hand, we may dislike an alternative, but are very excited about the possible outcome. This decision would probably not be wise for us either. If we feel we can live well with both the alternative as well as the possible outcome, this is the wise decision we should follow. After all, the only thing we need to do is to put our decision to work.

As a matter of fact, although these tips are easy to say, it is more difficult for we people to do. So we not only know these things, if it is possible, we should also take a try.  It takes time to learn, as well as to practice. With practice, we can find that we are going to make wiser decisions, both in our profession as well as personal life. There are many opportunities for us to make lots of decisions in our life. If we make a wrong decision, our life will be led to a totally different way. On the contrary, making a good decision can make us successful. The most important of all, after making a decision, we should not regret. Instead, we should be determined to make our decision work successfully.

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