In the past year I have met clients who couldn’t pull the trigger on an immediate decision to move forward with a career consultant (me) or, after doing so, couldn’t select a single path to pursue. There’s nothing wrong with multiple paths, my advice is to test one out and give it 100% effort before deciding to go the other route. Pick a lane.
For a variety of reasons we have a challenge in making decisions from learning curve to self sabotage. I have found the fundamental thread was a lack of something:
- confidence
- finances
- honesty
- knowledge
- life experience
- mental health
- relationship support
- sleep
- training
There’s no magic wand. It’s a personal journey. Some folks stay stuck. I understand hesitancy and have personally experienced most of the negatives stated above. Through it all my motto is “the biggest risks lead to the biggest rewards.” It has served me well. What is your motto for decision making? Do you have one?
Decision Fatigue — Explained
Psychological evidence indicates that decision quality declines after an extensive session of decision-making, a phenomenon known as decision fatigue. Upon researching this topic, it appears to be a common phenomenon. Has this happened to you?
In his book, “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,” Dr. Roy Baumeister says our daily mental energy is finite. The Freudian psychological description is “ego depletion.” Baumeister calls it “decision fatigue.”
According to CNBC contributor and San Francisco-based psychotherapist Tess Brigham, the biggest complaint her predominantly millennial patient base states: “I have too many choices and I can’t decide what to do. What if I make the wrong choice?” Further, she cites research related to decision fatigue.
RescueTime, a personal analytics service providing productivity software for workplace time management, in 2017 analyzed over 225 million hours of their users working time finding their average user switches between tasks more than 300 times per day. The result? Decision fatigue: “Where our lack of energy and focus leads to making poor decisions. This is a problem.”
Bottom line, too many decisions leads to not making any or bad ones. For some people. There are alternatives. Read on for what has worked for me.
My Personal Decisions
Here is a storyline in my twenties of making decisions when I was on the early adult learning curve of life. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. Overall it worked out.
- First Job: When I became a marketing consultant after graduate school, my mom advised me not join the firm due to the principal owner’s reputation. I overruled the feedback. It turned out to be the best mentoring working for a PhD in Statistics. He was challenging, infuriating, and, by today’s corporate governance, totally inappropriate but this catapulted me to become a full partner within a new consulting firm within five years making 6 figures.
- Home Purchase: My friends advised me not to buy a house with a boyfriend prior to marriage. I decided to proceed co-signing the contract. The relationship didn’t work out but I learned about home equity, tax write-offs, and negotiation. And, sold the home for a profit 5 years later before moving to Kansas City and marrying my husband of 19 years.
- First Four-Legged Child: I fell in love with the Bouvier des Flandres dog breed while visiting family on the East Coast. Once again, I was advised that it was crazy to have a thick furred sheep herding dog in 100 degree Dallas weather. You might have guessed it, I disregarded that advice. Upon purchasing that first home, I adopted my furry child Miss Boo. She was incredibly stubborn and even after attending an away onsite 5-week dog training boot camp would still do whatever she wanted. Let’s just say the “Sit” command was interpreted as “I’m going to lay down now” and potty training took 1 year requiring a full house of new carpeting. What on Earth should have happened with a dog bred to be an independently-thinking sheep herder? Silly me, like I was the dog whisperer overnight. On the other hand, Miss Boo was my faithful companion for 10 years and brought me tremendous joy. I still miss her.
I picked paths against advice and went for it. The bottom line, there were major finances and personal commitments that didn’t work out perfectly but the upside was worthwhile. Life is messy, not black and white. Pick a lane.
Decision Making Process
I can appreciate that not all people can readily vet a decision. Here’s what has worked for me. Perhaps it might help with your decisions.
- Three Decision Points: I love 3 inputs on any decision because it provides different perspectives. In the past year, I have obtained 3 quotes each for the following projects – website development, hosting platforms, home repair, and Prada purse decisions (that was a stretch but might have caught the female radar). I made decisions on all 4 items in less than a week. Fyi, Prada took the longest. I tend to ponder discretionary fiscal personal decisions longer than business decisions. Do you share the same experience?
- Hire Experts: Eight years ago I was told to keep my job I would need to move from Seattle, WA to an isolated town down South. That’s when I turned to expert career guidance. I signed up for www.theladders.com, which is a job search site for $100K+ annual salary career positions. Upon using their resumé assessment tool, it highlighted I needed to hire a resumé writer. My next step was hiring a career consultant and resumé writer. After 2 weeks of assessment and a reformatted resumé, I immediately saw results. With my new found confidence and online presence, I obtained job interviews and finally secured a new career adventure — ironically staying at my same company while transitioning from a Marketing Manager to Sales Executive role. It worked out well for me. Different than the planned path but life throws you curves.
- Find Mentors: I have always sought the advice and counsel of colleagues and executives I admire. It’s refreshing to hear a different perspective. My husband happens to be the mentor as a former sales director and electrical engineer at both Fortune 500s and San Jose startups. At times, I listened to the hard truth – which I didn’t enjoy hearing — but needed to understand to grow and prosper. I continue to do so today as a continuous life learner.
For your next career adventure, my advice is to create a strategic plan for yourself and develop 5 actionable tactics within a short-term 1 month deadline. Then go execute 1-2 tactics this week. If you fail, try something new. What do you have to lose? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Land your dream job, you deserve it!
