Most of us struggle with making decisions at some point or another. Sometimes it’s “should I buy the generic laundry detergent or the Tide” but usually the struggles come with the bigger, financial choices, like “should I buy a new Mac or just make do with my old one” or even “should I shoot food, which I love, but which would mean completely changing my business?”
Here’s a technique I have found very helpful when I get “stuck” trying to make a choice: the weighted pro/con list.
Take a piece of paper (physically writing helps) and draw a line vertically down the middle. Write the choice at the top of the page (“Should I buy a new Mac?”) and put “pro” or “con” on either side of the line. Now list the items in each column as you think of them. For our Mac-buying example, you might have “faster” in the pro and “$3000” in the con area.
After you’ve listed every reason for and against you can think of, including purely emotional ones like “I love the design” or “It would make me feel good,” go back over each item and rate its importance to you on a scale from 0-100 (least-most). Maybe “faster” is 50 and “$3000” is an 80…whatever you feel is right is right. Try not to think about what others would rate the items–just what you would.
Then, add up the numbers in each column. The column with the higher total “wins.”
Of course this isn’t scientific or anything, but it does help clarify your thoughts and feelings on any issue. I love this technique and use it often myself, though they do look at me funny in the grocery store when I whip out pen and paper in the laundry aisle. 😉