The Simple Mind is a newsletter to help you reduce overthinking and boost self-confidence.

Hi guys,

Decision-making in business can be tricky. You need ownership, the stakes are sometimes really high, and when they’re not, our lovely brain makes it feel otherwise.

It often impacts people, requires buy-in from others (or from certain parts of yourself). It impacts your perceived image and self-image, and let’s be real, in most corporations it’s a fairly messy process.

If you struggle with self-confidence and overthinking, then making big decisions can get even trickier. So today, let’s talk about how you can get better at decision-making.

I appreciate you for reading.

Let’s dive in!

Orianne

Reading time: 3min.

What happens when we make business decisions

The biggest struggle when you make a big business decision (or in life really) is the lack of right or wrong answer. It’s not black or white, it’s a constant grey, and not limited to 50 shades.

The game is infinite, which is awesome and why we enjoy running a business or a team, but sometimes, it gets dizzying. I think mainly because your decisions impact other humans, and how we’ll be perceived.

We grew up with a black or white model. At school, you were right or wrong, there was no room for nuances.

We carry this as adults. In times of doubt, or stress we unconsciously go back to that thinking patterns. We then feel like a child who believes there is a right answer but can’t find it, freezes in front of the class, unable to respond, to eventually say something that doesn’t make sense.

Let go of the perfect decision

I know you’re a bit of an overly enthusiastic optimizer (also known as a perfectionist), so the “perfect decision” thinking can be pretty automatic.

Become aware of it, it’s part of what gets you stuck, or slower at decision-making.

You’re looking for a perfect answer, to solve for an imperfect situation. Perfection is relative and depends on the angle from which you look at the problem.

When you have to make a decision aim for an optimized solution, not the perfect one.

Optimized for what?

Overwhelmed by choice (and a slight fear of making the wrong decision), we tend to forget why we’re doing what we do. Go back to your first intention.

When we look for the perfect solution, we try to find a solution that solves for all or most elements of the situation. Meaning we dismiss the priorities and our actual goal to accommodate everything else. We end up making an overthought, overcomplicated decision, which doesn’t serve our goal, or make sense really.

Be intentional.

Don’t enter the decision limbo

The decision limbo is that confusing space where you hesitate, feel unsure, overwhelmed by the options. It happens because your imposter syndrome, inner people-pleaser, inner perfectionist, or other inner personas are chiming in on the decision-making. And their why, is different from your why.

Your imposter syndrome tries to prove its value, not create some, your people pleaser wants to be appreciated, not make the right business decisions.

Don’t give these inner personas time to settle in. When faced with a choice, be crystal clear on your goals and intentions, and then set a timeline to make the decision.

Regrets, out - Learnings, in

Don’t indulge in "I should have chosen x,y, or z". That line of thinking teaches your mind you can’t trust your decision-making process, leading to more indecisiveness.

Own your choices and move on. Even when you picked the less optimized choice, there’s a huge difference between thinking "I should have chosen x", vs "Now I know y is not the best". 

Remember whatever you say, your mind’s listening. So small or big, when you choose something, own it, learn from it, but move on.

Don’t be the one telling yourself you’re not to be trusted with decisions.

One nudge for you

Train your decision-making muscle with small daily decisions, it will greatly impact your skills for the more complex ones.

1. Become aware of your daily ‘small’ indecisiveness. Be it for dinner, for watching a show, or for the design of a presentation, become aware of the ‘smaller’ indecisiveness you allow daily

2. Go back to the why.
   To what end am I ordering food? Yes, you want to eat, but was the motivator, eating healthy, getting food fast, surprising your partner, etc?

3. 2-second rule: make the decision in 2 seconds or less. It will teach your mind to follow your gut and process unimportant decisions fast.

4. No looking back. Reframe I should have into a learning statement, and let it go.

5. Apply to bigger decisions. Of course, adapt decision-making time to the stakes of the decision.

5 questions for important decisions

• To what end am I making this decision? What’s the why here?

• What is priority, what isn’t, in which order?

• What are my potential blindspots?

• What would make me confident about it?

• What’s my gut feeling on this?

If you’re new here, welcome! I’m Orianne, I share weekly tools to help you reduce overthinking and boost your self-confidence.

A bit more about me: I am a mindset coach. I coach brilliant humans who perform very well but want to improve their relationship with themselves (their minds). I am a chocolate addict, live by the beach, and always read several books at the same time (currently The 10th Insight by James Redfield, & Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab).

If you enjoyed this newsletter, you can read the previous editions and subscribe here. If you’re ready for coaching you can book an intro call.