How to make good decisions?

Making decisions is perhaps a big challenge for a lot of people. We need to make decisions everywhere from school to home to work. Be it your personal relationships or your business relationships. Be it long term decisions or short term decisions. Some people are naturally good decision makers. Some people are not. In this blog entry I will attempt to give some thoughts on ways to make good decisions.

Typically there are 5 inputs which go into any decisions. The output of course is your decision.

1) Logic:

This is your criteria to evaluate your decision alternatives. This logic you come up with may be based on your experiences, biases ( though ideally it should be unbiased), etc. You try to define your priorities and the results you want. And then evaluate your alternatives based on how close they can get you to the results you desire. Westwords details 5 steps to making a decision in a logical manner. This website lists the following steps which it claims ( and I agree)everyone goes though in some way while making decisions:

• Conflict - Why do you have to make a decision?
• Goal - What do you want to happen?
• Alternatives - What are your choices?
• Consequences - What good or bad things can happen?
• Decision - Making your choice.
• Reflection - How do you feel about your choice?

2) Emotion

The second input is emotion. Emotion is random and may depend on how emotional you are. Some people are not emotional at all. Others are very emotional. While others become emotional on certain issues and are dry on other issues. Hence this input depends on the individual who is making the decision. Sometimes we might evaluate our decision alternatives based on our emotions or if two alternatives look the same we may decide to favor one alternative over the other based on our emotional connections or emotional biases. Emotion probably has a strong connection with our intuitions as well. Also there is a cross between logic and emotion as well. For example you have 2 job offers and one of them is in your home town and of course emotionally ( i.e. emotion) you are much more at ease in your town hence it makes sense ( i.e. logic ) to take up the opportunity in your home town.

3) Advice

Advice is an essential input. Like emotion it depends on the kind of person you are Some people like to take more advice the others. Some people don't like advice at all. I believe advice is important even if it is just brainstorming your opinions with someone. Advice can be sought from someone who knows a lot about the topic you are seeking advice on. Or it could just be a listener. It is imperative that the person is honest otherwise his/her input may harm the decision. Too much advice is something we should also be wary of. That will just confuse things.

4) Time

Time varies for each decision. However it is essential that we don't make rash decisions in a short time when we had a longer time available. Time can also mean that you delay a decision till you have more experience with/on the issue your making your decision on. Time may mean you want to get rid of emotions in your decision making process. Time may also imply that you want more time to seek advice from more people or more knowledgeable people. Furthermore an alternative may expire after some time hence it is important at that point to evaluate the chances of getting a similar alternative in the future.

5) Duas

Perhaps the easiest and most effective tool we have to help us with our decisions is our duas. We make dua to Allah to help us make the correct decision. We can make the special prayer: Istikhara to help us in our prayers. Sunnipath details the way to make istikhara and how it helps us in our decision or how it facilitates our decision:

Rather, the istikhara is a prayer that Allah guide you towards that which is best (khayr) for you. If you do the prayer of guidance (istikhara) with the proper manners, the most important of which is to truly consign the matter to Allah and suspend your own inclinations, then Allah will make events unfold in the direction that is the best for your worldly and next-worldly affairs.

Sunnipath also has some good advice on decisions:

The sunna is that one changes oneself by developing habits and realizations:

a) make it a habit not to second guess yourself after making a decision: once you take a decision, stick to it (unless there is a manifest and undeniable reason not to, such as obvious harm). If you get doubts or misgivings, just say, Tawakkaltu `ala Allah’ (I have placed my trust in Allah). This is taken from the QurÂ’an verse,… And if you make a resolve, then place your trust in Allah.

b) realize that all we are responsible for is taking sound means: it is Allah, not us, who creates the results.

Inshah allah Allah gives us the most effective means to make the best decisions which benefit us in this world and the next. Ameen.