While there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making, following the 5-step decision-making process will help you make tough decisions better and faster. The purpose of the decision-making process is ultimately to achieve certain outcomes, to satisfy a need, or to solve a problem. When you’ve identified the alternatives and analyzed your options in steps three and four respectively, you should be ready to take the plunge, make the final decision and take action to start moving towards your desired destination. Commitment to action is the hardest step. How many times have you wanted to make a change but then didn’t? The biggest reason most people fail to achieve their goal is failure to fully commit to taking deliberate and consistent action. We don’t just get what we wish for. We end up with what we are willing to work for. Actions make dreams happen. However, taking action is often the overlooked ingredient for professional and personal growth. If we wait for the perfect timing and conditions, we’ll never get anything done. The secret to success is to start where we are and keep trying. Steps 1 to 4 in the decision-making process involve inward processing and intrinsic motivations. Taking action involves extrinsic circumstances, dealing with the real-time influences and impact of the outside world. 5 ways to stay committed to action and achieve success: 1. Go public: declare your goal to the world. Post it on Facebook. Tell people about it. Put money on it. Say that you’ll do something embarrassing in public if you fail. Make people hold you accountable. Having a support structure will keep you motivated. Add an accountability buddy who’d keep you on track, or hire your own personal coach. ASK YOURSELF: Who could I ask to help hold me accountable? 2. Prep up: list all the action steps as best you can and prioritize them. You may need to do some research to figure out the most sensible action steps. And you may want to list your sexiest and most interesting actions first to get excited. Planning out the action steps in detail would make the goal more attainable having a realistic expectation of the time and effort that will be required. If you get overwhelmed, you may choose to eliminate some steps, or reduce the scope of your goal. Both options would require making some trade-offs. ASK YOURSELF: What could I STOP/START/Continue doing? What could I do LESS/MORE of? 3. Stay on track: establish achievable milestones you want to reach to ensure you are making steady progress. Remember: some progress is better than no progress. Get the structure to hold your focus on what you have to do and to keep you on track. A few suggestions:
Track your progress in a commitment journal.
Evaluate your actions in binary terms: either you're working on your most important goal (MIG), or you're not.
Organize your list by day, week and month. As you take action, track your actual progress and adjust your future estimates.
These techniques will focus your attention on doing what needs to be done to move your most important goal forward. ASK YOURSELF: How will I track my progress? What will I measure specifically? 4. Celebrate small wins: Set up a reward system to keep things fun. Big goals don’t happen overnight but rather as a series of action steps and small wins. Have a reward system in place for when you accomplish each milestone to stay motivated while working toward your MIG. Design your own personal recognition program. Put it in writing to make it real and give it importance. Create your own kudos/awesome jar. Here’s how:
Every day: write down 3 things you’ve accomplished that day.
Every week: write down your top 3 accomplishments for the week.
All the slips go in the kudos/awesome jar.
End of month: revisit all the small wins of the month and reward yourself.
ASK YOURSELF: What little wins have I had today? This week? This month? 5. Make NO excuses: once you make a commitment, make yourself stronger than your excuses. My grandmother used to say that excuses are for things that are not really important. Commitment to action is not about perfection. It’s about the courage to try, to make mistakes, to get up and to keep going. Commitment means giving nothing less than 100% and not giving up on a dream when the going gets tough. Excuses come a dime a dozen. Commitment requires daily action over time. Nothing worthwhile is easy, stay focused. ASK YOURSELF: Am I giving my 100% absolute best effort? The biggest secret to following through on your decisions is to take one step forward every single day. The pain of the process is temporary while the satisfaction of achievement and the joy of the creative process stay with you forever. Choose wisely and enjoy the journey.
