How do you make decision? Have you a problem with your decision making? Maybe you don’t have any problem, because you have a good influencer in your life to make decision. In any case, I’m sure you have a lot of things that you need to make decision. Either simple ones, like what clothes to wear, what you want to eat for breakfast or lunch, etc. Or something a bit harder, which project I should do first. Some decisions will affect your life permanently or at least it will give a lot of impact in your life. Like, If you do drugs, it’ll take a long time to be free. It’s not impossible, but it will take a long time. Some things might be clear what is good or bad decisions. But how do you know that what you have decide is good?

During my commute, I usually try to listen to a podcast. Well, it’s actually to motivate me to exercise, which is to walk from train station to my office. At this particular walk, I listened to Andy Stanley’s podcast. It is about the most important question to ask before you make a decision. It is a simple question to ask, yet it will impact your decision. The question is “what is the wise thing to do?” you might have heard about it somewhere. Or even you ask that to yourself. How can it be powerful for you?

In the podcast Andy describe 3 guides to make good decisions:
1. Ask yourself: What is the wise thing to do?
It seems a simple thing to ask. You might have heard it before, but have you actually doing it? An extra thing that I learned from this is to ask this in light of your own past experience, current situation, and your future dreams. You know yourself better and you know what works and not. If you want to follow other’s, follow those who has similar experience like yours. If not, you might just follow things blindly without fully understand the consequences.

This is valid for your children too. Do you remember those time when your child say something like “it’s not fair, my friend’s parents allow him to do that”? (whatever that is). Or when you get your child grade is lower than others, do you scold your child? I was reminder to compare it with themselves. Not everyone should be a doctor or programmer or something else. As long as your child is getting better, that is good. It is our job to guide them to a better path.

2. In the pressure of the moment stop for a while
These days there are a lot of things that pressure you to make decision. Have you walk on a busy road and suddenly, somebody asked you “do you have a minute? we have promotion on this (let say) credit card. if you apply now, you’ll get…” and so on and on. If the gift is something that you have been looking for and you’ll get it for free when you apply, you might be tempted to apply. Have you feel that way? Sometime, it’s not always a good thing. Sometime it is a bad decision. But you feel that it is the right decision because of the situation.

It is advisable to stop and walk away from the decision if you’re unsure about what you need to do. People love to make you feel guilty and rush you to do something just so that they get what they want. So, whenever possible, stop a while and don’t make any decision. Especially not when you are influenced with your emotion such as anger, greed, etc.

3. Admit to yourself that you don’t know
I’m sure that you don’t know a lot of things. And most of the time I try to act clever and think that I know everything. At the end, I need to admit that I don’t know. It is a good thing that you don’t know on something. Not so that you’ll get tricked by others, but to find the answer yourself by the help of others.

We are social being. You and I might have different traits and knowledge about something. You might have learn yourself that when you received an email regarding a prize or a heritage that is so huge that they need your help to withdraw. The only thing that you need is to give your bank information, and the money is yours. You might think that it is so obvious. No one will tricked by that. Are you sure? The reason it’s still circulated is because there’s still a few people that fall into the trap. You might know about this scenario, but what about other scenario? There will be time when you need to consult with other people that you trust

In making right decision, we need to know what is right to do at this moment. Your decision will make your life better or worse. You have the key for your life.

In the podcast, Andy mentioned that this topic is based on his book “Ask It”  I’d love to get this book to learn more from it. If you’d like, you can get it too.

If you want to listen to the podcast yourself, you can get it from here
NOTE: I can’t find the link to the podcast directly. it was in ITunes podcast link. you can search number 10 with the title “Ask It”

Question: how can you be sure on making that decision? (whatever that decision is) what is your criteria to make decision?

Proverbs 19: 2″It is not good for a person to be without much learning, and he who hurries with his feet rushes into sin.”