HOW TO MAKE IMPORTANT PERSONAL DECISIONS IN 7 STEPS - ARTE - 2025

Learning how to make important personal decisions is essential to follow the path that produces the best results in your life. In this article I will explain how to do it with several examples. From now on you will begin to overcome your moments of indecision and be more determined.

Have you ever stopped to think about the influence that certain decisions have had on your life? In reality, whether you are aware of it or not, whatever you do, every day you enter a decision-making process.

There may be times when you have to choose one option or another and not go back. However, these cases are exceptions and in the vast majority of cases it is possible to correct and go back.

It is true that some decisions are more important than others, however, the results, what happens in your life does not depend on a single choice, but on many.

Examples of personal decision making

Paco's case

He moves to another city and begins to make dozens of business decisions that year after year will lead him to be the richest man on the planet.

You may notice that this story is very similar to that of a very influential person. You just have to change Paco for Bill Gates.

What led Gates to create Micrososft was not just leaving Harvard University, it was many decisions: learn programming, leave university, own the rights to its main products, buy a product (MS-DOS) and then sell it, not sell hardware (machines), but software (ms-dos, windows)…

Manuel's case

Is it a single decision that Manuel makes? No. Take several: don't try to solve the problem with your wife, go on a trip, drink, get high, don't avoid fights…

Ultimately, what happens in life does not depend on a single decision, there are many that lead to some results or others. Depending on what decisions you are making, you will find yourself in one situation or another.

It is similar to the well-known "Butterfly Effect". In the film with the same name, the effects of the decisions taken by the protagonist are shown very well. Depending on the ones you take, you come to different situations and results in your life in the long term.

Blind decisions

I call the ones we make "blind decisions" that we don't realize we're making because we think it's normal. It is what we see other people doing and therefore we do not question it.

Examples:

• Watching TV instead of reading a book.
• Drinking alcohol in social situations.
• Dressing in a certain way.
• Buying a latest smartphone "because you need it."
• Getting into debt with a car that cannot be paid.
• Go to high school, university, find a job, get married.

What difference will there be in 5-10 years between a person who decides to read instead of watching TV? How healthy will a person who drinks 1-2 beers be when he goes out compared to one who drinks 4-7 drinks? How tied to a job will someone find themselves in debt to pay for a car that they could not afford?

The importance of beliefs

Depending on the beliefs you have, you will tend to make some decisions or others.

Those beliefs depend on your culture, your family, and yourself. Being born in favorable environments is positive, but being born in a certain place does not limit you, less at present with globalization.

Examples:

• Believe that it is dangerous to leave abroad: a person with this belief would tend to stay in their country and would miss thousands of experiences.
• Believing that failure is bad: This person would never try anything new, would always play it safe, and therefore have little chance of achieving something difficult.
• Believe that you have to follow the majority: it would probably not achieve anything difficult either, it would tend to follow what others do.
• Believing that achievements depend on luck: you would probably not try anything, since you would believe that achievements come suddenly, without looking for them.

Therefore, your beliefs will largely determine the decisions that you will make for a long time. And it will not only be one, there will be many that determine your situation.

How to make good decisions?

1-Think about what you want. What is your goal?

You are going to make very bad decisions if you don't know what you want, that is, what your goal is. And in fact, it is impossible for you to know what decisions to make if you do not know where you want to go.

I will ask:

• What goals do you want to achieve.
• What do you want to change?
• How do you want to feel?

Reflecting is good because it allows you to think about your situation, about what determines that situation, about what aspects of it you want to change and about where you want to go or what you want to have.

2-Think about the consequences

Sometimes it is necessary to take one path or another in life.

For example, I had to decide whether to stay in Chile to work or to return to Spain. Finally I returned to Spain, that decision led me to return and hundreds of other decisions have led me to my situation today.

At the time, I thought about the consequences of staying in Chile and I didn't.

A technique that I learned in a coaching process is the following. It is used for when you have to decide whether to choose one option or another:

On the middle of a sheet, draw a picture of yourself if you had made a choice. How would you be and how would you find yourself? For example, having chosen a job in your country.

In the other half, draw how you would be if you had made the other choice. For example, having gone abroad to work.

What situation do you like the most? Which one would you be happy with?

3-Increase the cake

In negotiation, it is called "increasing the pie" to increase the number of things that become part of a negotiation.

For example, instead of just negotiating the sale of a house for money, you could negotiate the sale of the house plus an annex for money. In this case, the adjoining lot is "the pie increase" and it would be offering something more than the house. Normally, in negotiation, this "increase in the pie" is made up of objects or services that do not entail any loss for those who offer them.

That "cake increase" can be objects or services and in the case of decisions it would be to expand the number of options you have.

Why would you go crazy having to decide between one guy or another when there are so many people to meet?

The same with any decision you may make; don't limit yourself.

4-Eliminate options and choose the best alternative

Now that you know what you want or what your goal is, you can eliminate the options that prevent you from reaching them.

• If you want to lose weight, it is clear that the choice to go to an open buffet is eliminated.
• If you want to study a university degree, all other options - work, study a minor education - are eliminated.
• If you want to study a career in health, all the others are out.
• If your goal is to be a great professional in the engineering sector, the books or courses that will help you learn more will be limited to that range.

On the other hand, the decisions you make will also be based on the rules you have.

You can have the rule of not spending more than X dollars / euros on shoes or that of accepting up to a certain degree of quality.

The best alternatives will be the ones that suit your goal (step 1) and they will be the ones you will have to choose.

5-Make decisions in the same direction

You can't know what particular situation a decision is going to lead you to, but making many decisions in the same direction will greatly increase the chances that you will get the result you want.

For example, making constant decisions in the direction of "growing as a professional" will lead you to decide to take courses, read books, meet good professionals in your sector, go to conferences…

Examples:

-You want to lose weight and decide to eliminate high-fat foods from your diet. You have also decided to exercise and not drink alcohol when you go out. You are also reading books that teach you which foods are the healthiest.

-Trying to pass an exam once may not be enough, not even twice. You may have to decide to present yourself 10 times before passing. Those 10 times you have decided to introduce yourself will have determined your final situation; having passed the exam.

-You open a business and one year goes bad, but you decide to persevere. After a year and a half you have improved very little but you are still determined. After 2 years you have improved a little more, very little and you make decisions that lead to improving your business. Finally, your business grows and gives you to live well.

6-decide for yourself

This is not to be overlooked, and the truth is that it is often overlooked.

Your situation and what you want is totally different from what others want. However, you can be influenced by other people. If you don't already do it, you need to learn to value yourself.

For example:

• Your goal may be to pass an exam that will allow you to access a job. Your friends encourage you to go out every weekend, even several days during the week. In that case, if you give in, you would be being influenced by others - who have other goals - and you would not be influenced by your goals.
• You may want to lose weight and your friends want to go to an open buffet. You sign up and you don't follow the diet. In that case, you would also have been influenced by others and not by your goals.

What is valuable to you?

You can take into account the opinion of other people, although you have to make decisions based on what you want.

7-Difference between hard and decisive decisions

The hard decisions are the ones that are difficult to make because you have to choose between two very similar options and in a short time. However, the result will be very similar, it will hardly determine anything, one option or another will not determine large differences in the results.

For example, you will be thinking about buying an opel or a honda. However, is it going to make a big difference in your life? Almost certainly not.

A decisive decision if it is important and, worth the redundancy, "decisive" because it will mean that you have totally different results whether you take it or not.

For example, accepting a job in a foreign country will determine that you have to make new friends, that you have to adapt, follow a totally different life, probably meet someone abroad and build a family.

In determining decisions you will need to spend more time, reflect on your goals, consequences and eliminate options. In short, you will have to do the process more slowly and thoroughly.