Your power of choice is your most valuable asset. Marketers pay millions of dollars to persuade you to choose to side with them and decide that you will be their loyal fans. This year, I learned about the power that is my decision in all that I decide in this life.

In many cases, I was paralyzed by inaction simply because I didn’t know what to do. One of my friends Reginald Rene put it like this "The ability to make decisions effectively is a sign of wisdom."

"The ability to make decisions effectively is a sign of wisdom."- Reginald Rene Click to Tweet

Plain and simple.

This resonated deeply with me for a few reasons. One, as an entrepreneur, I understand first hand how important choices are. The decisions I make on a day to day have to be sound or I could lose it all. I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but its true.

So I took to what Reginald said and for the past few months, I have been meditating deeply on how to make better choices. Here is a list of items I have used to make better decisions most recently.

1. Points of Reference

The best choices are informed choices. I have recently employed the practice of asking myself "What information are you using to root our choices in? What are your intentions?" The frame of reference for my decisions are the intended results. As I frame my choices this way, I am able to get really clear about the steps that I need to take to get closer to my desired outcome. Alternately, if a step will not bring me closer to my outcome, I choose not to engage and write that unneeded step off as a distraction

2. Beware of Biases

We as humans have a natural tendency to think only about what we want and do away with anything that doesn't support our ideas. The name for this phenomenon is a "confirmation bias." These deep-rooted beliefs are hard to shake and even harder to challenge. I had to really dig deep and determine what some of my biases where. Once I identified them, I had to look them in the face and literally challenge each idea I held so dearly.

One major confirmation bias I had was regarding rest. I had this very rigid idea that success was the product of work, work, work, and more work. Rest put you behind. In my mind, rest was the deterioration of the human will. Sleep? Yeah, I'll do that when I'm dead. Those were some of the ideas I had. That is until I was able to challenge some of those thoughts. Now I am trying to accomplish more of a balance. Work hard and rest hard. Like a muscle or a machine, there needs to be downtime to recover for optimal performance.

As a result, my decisions on how much work I am going to accomplish and when I am going to rest are much more sustainable for long-term effectiveness.

3. Clouds of Judgement

I Don't let how I feel dictate what I do as much any longer. We are emotional beings. I am an emotional being. I'm not suggesting feelings be ignored. I'm suggesting that as I was able to move from feelings to facts, I was able to make better choices. I could get angry with my payment processing company for not processing my payments for the week and quit them. That was definitely an option. Let me be the first to tell you that I was very upset, however, I couldn't let my anger blind me from finding the choices I would need to make moving forward. That one flash of angry could have gone from bad to worse and ultimately left my predicament unresolved. I was able to weigh my options. Which brings me to my next point.

4. In-formation

In order to weigh options, you need a lot of information. Information is the key to inward formation. What we choose to do is mostly based on the information we have. Making the wisest decision is a result of pooling all the information regarding your decision. Not being well informed can lead to an undesired outcome. What you don't know CAN hurt you.

Let put it into perspective. Could you imagine being asked to complete a task without any instruction? You could find yourself stumbling and frustrated. If you had more information about what you were being asked to do, it would present you with the best way to proceed in successfully completing your task.

5. You don't know what you don't know

In some instances, there may not be enough information to make an informed decision. In this case, it was in my best interest to seek outside counsel. Truth be told, asking for help is a process for me. I had to learn to get over that quick, especially when client needs or money was on the line. Asking others for information requires trust. When asking others for an insight that will affect my decision, I am sure to seek counsel from an individual that knows more than I do and has a PROVEN track record regarding my inquiry.

Even when asking others, the decision is mine to make. I just want to have as much information as possible and that's where this individual will come in. I don't know what I don't know. I ask those who know more.

6. Consider the consequences

When I am making a decision I think deeply about that outcome. I think about whether or not I am okay with dealing with the negative consequences of my decision, even if they are minimal. If I am not willing to assume the risk then I won't make the decision. For me, not wanting to deal with the negative consequences creates a contrast that informs what I really want to do or not do.

Don't get me wrong, If I choose not to make a decision due to the negative consequences, that choice may be a symptom of the need to do more sorting or seeking information. On the other hand, it may just not be worth it for me.

7. What's good for the goose isn't good for the gander

In meditating on making better decisions, I realized I had to stop making my decisions based on other peoples wins and or losses. I can never really know what it takes for someone to accomplish what they have. Though their wins may be inspiring or their losses are fear-provoking, I may not experience the same results (win or lose).

Others decisions can be used as an example (if you have enough information), but not the entire and ONLY basis for emulating or moving forward in a decision.

That bit of reality rue hit me hard when I took a couple of major losses that I tried to replicate naively.

8. Leave Room to Be Wrong

One of the only ideas that I recall from statistics was the idea of a "margin of error." No matter what we do in life, there will be a small (or big) chance that it will not work out. At all cost, I try to reduce the margin of error to improve my likelihood of reaching my desired outcome. Even with all the planning in the world, things fall through the cracks, people don't always do their part and you just really never know. You don't. Let that settle deep within your soul.

Part of my decision-making process is creating systems and finding ways to reduce my margin error as much as possible. This step took the most time. It also was the culmination of all the previous steps listed. This step in the decision-making process tied me deeply to reality, especially when there is a lot on the line. Decide wisely.

Rule of Thumb: Before I make a decision, the outcome of said decision should be allowing me to have more time, access to resources, health, or wealth. Essentially, I weigh what the outcome will cost me versus what the perceived value is.

These are some decision making methods that have guided me and allowed me to grow, cut out wasted time and bring me closer to my desired outcomes.

I would love to hear more about your decision-making process. Have I missed any steps? What would you add to this list?