Poor decision making

How To Combat Poor Decision Making

Decision making is one of the most important life skills a person needs to develop, for good outcomes. I am amazed at how simple strategies like these are not taught at schools, as the impact of poor decision making is far reaching. 

We make big and small decisions constantly through our day, some with bigger consequences than others. When we make poor decisions that are irreversible, we then compound the effect by getting frustrated with ourselves.

This presents a double whammy as the emotional self takes a further beating. Why did I make that decision? Why am I so ?x@!&# (whatever it is you say to yourself). This is where an NLP course could be extremely helpful. Understanding what you say to yourself when the chips are down is at the heart of what needs to be eradicated.

If you do not know much about NLP, it is an acronym that stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. When we make poor decisions, it is because we have internal conflict.

This stems from having many parts inside us that are wanting different things and therefore, going in different directions. If two parts are pulling in different directions, stress eventually occurs which makes it hard to achieve good outcomes.
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It is proven that our emotional state plays a big part in achieving good outcomes. When we are happy we make good decisions and when we are angry we make bad decisions. This is part of the normalcy of life and is quite different to being a bad decision maker. 

The latter is someone who needs to; 

• first be aware that he is making bad decisions constantly
• understand the parts that he has created that work in opposition to each other
• find an NLP coach or attend an NLP course to integrate these identified parts
• feeling whole again is what is to be expected at the end of this process 

Unbeknownst to many, when we make poor decisions we are starting a downward spiral that leads us down a rabbit hole. To where you might ask?

Well, in my experience with coaching clients, I have seen those who became depressed, suicidal, bulimic and anorexic. You may be surprised but that is the path to how people suffer these ailments. 

So, when we make poor decisions, it is not only about not achieving good outcomes, it is also about living a healthy and happy life, away from illness and disease that manifests over a period of inaction.

​In the interim, as a short-term measure, poor decision making is a direct result of the state of mind we are in. In practicing state management (another core tenet of an NLP course), this helps us create good outcomes by just being in a positive state. 

As an example, I had a client who wanted to lose weight. Don’t we all? Well, he would be tempted when he opened the fridge door and saw the contents in it.

Interestingly, through the coaching sessions we did, he realized his decisions were quite different on days when he was upbeat and other days when he felt low.

​He made better choices on good days than on bad days. So good outcomes are within reach if we are in a positive zone. How then to live in the zone that works for you? 

Well, create a state of happiness and anchor it on a part of your body, your knuckle for instance. Anytime you feel you need happiness, fire off the anchor of happiness and you might make that right choice of food in the fridge or even choose to give it a miss. 

Poor decision making has a pattern, like everything else in life. If you care to elevate your attention to your pattern, that could save you a tremendous amount of angst and eradicate internal conflict.

Your journey to creating good outcomes could also be a shorter one, if you chose to attend an NLP course and pick up these tools. It is the “how to” in life which would help you understand what you are doing when you make poor decisions.

In closing, I would like to add that many people focus on strategies directed at the conscious mind. For instance; 

• stop distracting yourself
• focus and don’t multi task
• get more data before you decide 

These do not eradicate the internal conflict residing in a person. In fact, poor decision making becomes worse over time because the issue at source has not been dealt with.

It is merely snowballing into something bigger until the day you make the ultimate poor decision that costs you a lot. Don’t wait for this eventuality. 

Take the shorter route and attend an NLP course. It could be the one session that will save you all the time and money, and catapult you to freedom.